


Invitation

by ThomE_Gemcity_06



Series: Invitation [2]
Category: NCIS, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, Crossover, Crossover Pairing, Developing Relationship, Drama & Romance, Episode: s02e18 Bikini Wax, Episode: s02e22 SWAK, Episode: s02e23 Twilight, Episode: s03e01 Kill Ari Part I, Episode: s03e02 Kill Ari Part 2, Episode: s04e20 The Rapture, F/M, Gen, Smut, Supernatural Elements, Team as Family, casework
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-08 04:25:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 78,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11638872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThomE_Gemcity_06/pseuds/ThomE_Gemcity_06
Summary: Tony meets the girl that he's sure to spend the rest of his life with; this is their story.





	1. Hello There

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted on fanfiction.net in September 2012. 
> 
> This is an elaboration on "The View", the story of Tony and Claire. I will delve deep into how Tony and Claire met, how they formed a relationship and married. There will also be a history between Claire and Kate, and a "Supernatural" tie-in. 
> 
> Tag will be added along the way.

"Thanks for doing this," Special Agent Timothy 'Tim' McGee said, his voice strained. In his arms were three boxes of files, down from the evidence locker in the garage.

"It's not a problem, Tim." Special Agent Claire Novak said, carrying two boxes herself. "I'm just sorry that I couldn't find a cart." She told him.

"I'm just glad that we didn't have to take the stairs," Tim said, leaning back against the elevator wall.

Claire smiled at him. "There's nothing wrong with a little workout."

Tim looked at her. "Do you want to get off on this floor?"

"Are you insane?" Claire demanded.

"I told you."

"Why do you need these two cases anyway?" Claire questioned as the elevator stopped and the doors slipped in, and another Agent stepped in, pressing a floor button for the doors to slide back closed. "I didn't think that the O'Brian and Ranjer cases were connected. They're almost a year apart,"

"Yeah, we didn't know that either." Tim told her as the other Agent got off. "With the timing on both murders, and the fact there was no connection between the two that we could find, but then we had another murder."

"Okay. So what's the connection?"

"A tattoo."

"A tattoo? I collected evidence on both of these cases, and I don't remember a tattoo." She told him.

"You collected evidence from the _crime scene_ ," Tim corrected her, "You didn't process the body."

"Right." Claire guessed, as the elevator finally got to the bullpen, "So, what? A cult, then?"

Tim gave a haphazard shrug as he stepped from the elevator, Claire following after him. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"So, where do you want these?" Claire asked.

"Just here," Tim told her, setting his boxes down between his desk and his neighbour’s. "I'm gonna have to sort through it all so I can find the evidence for Abby to go through."

Claire nodded and set her two boxes beside Tim's.

"Claire?" Claire turned to find Special Agent Caitlin 'Kate' Todd setting her bag by her desk. "I knew it was you!"

"Hey, Kate!" Claire grinned at the female Agent.

"Where's Tony?" Tim slipped in before they could get full-blown reminiscing.

"Behind me," Kate said. "He was too slow to catch the doors before they closed."

"Tony better watch out if Gibbs hears that." Tim noted.

Tim and Kate both paused, holding their breath. Usually when a comment like that was voiced, Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs would appear of nowhere saying, "Hear what, McGee?". But as the seconds ticked by, and the Boss didn't round on them, they let it out, grinning at each other.

"What was that?" Claire questioned.

"Nothing," they answered.

Claire just looked between the two of them, a little worried.

Tim sat in his chair behind his desk and took the lid off the first box, taking out a stack of files from the O'Brian case. Kate came around and leaned a hip on the edge of her desk, her arms crossed lightly over her chest, the smile in place.

"You look good." Kate said.

"Thanks." Claire smiled as she leaned her butt back against the edge of Senior Special Agent Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo’s desk, her hands flat on the edge. "It's a look that only garage dinginess can produce!" she said in a advertisement voice.

Kate laughed.

"I can say the same for you."

"It's the walls, and the skylight." Kate said seriously. "They mess with your head." She stage-whispered with a façade of paranoia.

Claire grinned at her, "I like orange,"

Kate's smiled stretched. "Got a boyfriend yet, Novak?" her eyes gleamed.

"Heh. I could say the same, Todd." Claire's eyes gleamed back.

Tim shook his head, trying to ignore the girl talk as he went through the files.

There was a beat of silence as they stared at each other, and then chuckled together.

"So, what have you been up to?" Kate said, sitting back. "I haven't seen you in forever."

"Well, that's because you never come down to evidence lock-up," Claire said. "I only ever see Tim."

Tim looked up at his name.

Claire looked at him. "And you're great company, but a fatal flaw is that you're not a girl."

"Thanks," Tim told her before he looked back down at the file, feeling a little embarrassed. But glad that he wasn't called a girl and that Tony wasn't there to hear it.

Kate looked a little guilty.

" _That was so uncalled for!"_ came the echo of Tony's voice from the elevator as the muted ding sounded. "Todd--!" Tony stopped short as he rounded the corner, ready for some payback, when he saw what was sitting on the edge of his desk… She was tall, at least 5'8'', and slim. She had long, natural blood hair that went passed her shoulders, the golden locks hanging loose around her face. Her brows were perfectly shaped, her eyes big and the colour of a marina, her nose was lightly buttoned and her chin rounded, her lips were puffed and pink, she had just the right amount make-up. Unlike Kate, she was wearing an orange pair of Converse All Star‘s, a pair of tight jeans, and a plain coloured polo shirt. It was plain-wear, nothing close to what Abby wore, but it seemed to suit her. Whoever she was. He had never seen her before, he would have remembered, but he knew that she was an Agent; she had a shield clipped onto the pocket of her jeans. "Well, hello there." A sultry smile started to spread across his across his lips.

Kate scoffed, "Jeez, Tony!"

Tim shook his head as Tony ignored her, but he saw that Claire was smiling back at Tony. Claire couldn't help it, she knew a handsome man when saw one. And he was it. At least 6'2'', he was muscular, but not overly so, like Arnold Swatzernager. She was very thankful for that, guys like that made her gag. He had brown hair, short, with just the right amount of gel that made it look natural, his eyes were a shaded blue with darker flecks, his nose wasn't too big and fit with his face with a tiny scar on the outer side of his nostril, his brows weren't bushy and his chin was clean, his jaw curved nicely, his lips perfectly kissable. The suit that he wore was tailored and expensive, a tie, and black shiny shoes to go with it.

"Ah-hem!" Tim cleared his throat.

"What, McGee?" Tony said, but didn't look at him and continued to look at Claire.

"This is Special Agent Claire Novak, she's the Supervisory Special Agent down in Field Forensics." Tim introduced.

"Claire, Senior _very_ Special Agent Tony DiNozzo," Tony held out his hand and Claire stood from his desk, taking his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Claire smiled at him, holding onto his hand a moment longer than was really necessary. "You guys have to come visit me sometime," she told Tim and Kate. Her eyes trailed down Tony once more before she went passed him and to the elevator. Tony wasn’t shy about watching her leave, looking over his shoulder. She arrived just the doors dinged opened, and she stepped in just as Gibbs was coming out, coffee in hand.

"Afternoon, Agent Gibbs." She flashed the older man a smile as she spun on her heal to face him and pressed the garage button.

He looked at her for a moment. "Novak," he finally said, with a jerk of his head as the doors slid closed. He turned and walked into the bullpen. Tim was at his desk with a pile of folders, Kate had the same. But Tony was standing there like an idiot. Gibbs smacked him on the back of the head, "Get your head out of your ass, DiNozzo. And get to work,"

"On it, Boss!" Tony gave him a sloppy salute, and grabbed a few folders from the box.

"I wanted answers yesterday!" he told them. They should of had answers yesterday, so far they had three cases, and they just found a connection this morning, and even that connection gave them no proper leads.

tbc!

 


	2. Thoughts Please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire get's called to a scene with the team for evidence collection; Kate makes a comment on something that gets Tony thinking.

"McGee! Kate! Get the truck," Gibbs instructed, throwing Tim the keys, thankful that he didn't fumble as he caught them. "DiNozzo, with me." 

They piled into the elevator, and Tim quickly pushed _G_ before he was both yelled at for doodling-around, and smacked. The door s slid closed and not too soon they were in the garage. Tim and Kate went for the truck, and Tony went for the car, but turned back when he realized that Gibbs wasn't at the Driver's side.

"Gibbs?" he questioned.

Gibbs didn't look over his shoulder as he kept walking to the other side of the garage. "Get in the car, DiNozzo." He ordered.

Tony stood there for a second in confusion, but decided against staying that way any longer than that, he really didn't feel like getting a smack this early in the morning. And climbed into the passenger's seat.

Gibbs stopped at the mesh gate of the evidence locker where the main evidence processing of the much bigger items occurred "Novak! Hurry it up," he called.

"Over here, Gibbs." Claire's voice came from behind him, she was in a windbreaker with _NCIS Forensics _written on the back.

He didn't jump, but that had never happened before, someone not actually being where he knew they should be. "Get in the car," he told her, harder than was necessary, as he turned back around to do the same.

"Already here." She opened the door behind Tony and set her kit in before she climbed in after it, slamming the door shut.

"Well, look who it is." Tony twisted in his seat, a curve in to his lips as Gibbs got into the driver's seat and put the keys into the ignition.

Claire smiled at him. "Hey, Tony."

"Hey, yourself." Tony grinned at her.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs growled, he smacked Tony as he peeled rubber from the garage, the truck already ahead of him.

"Ow!" Tony pouted, rubbing the back his head as he twisted back around in his seat, slipping his belt into place. "So, why is Novak coming?"

"We got a tip that this is connected with the O'Brian, Ranjer, and Quade cases." Gibbs said, passing the truck. "Novak was the one that collected the evidence for O'Brian and Ranjer."

"Glade to have you aboard, Claire." Tony said.

"Thanks, Tony."

The ride was quiet and quick, and Claire figured that why waste money to go to an amusement park when she could just get a ride with Gibbs. When Gibbs parked and the three occupants were climbing out, the truck finally pulled in. Though it had left first, with Gibbs' driving, he could bypass a rocket. 

"I.D., McGee." Gibbs order his youngest Agent.

"On it, Boss." Tim said. He crouched down next to the dead man and with gloved fingers, carefully took his finger and pressed it on the pad. It scanned his finger and data started to fill down the screen. "Petty Officer Daniel Jordon. Single no children, no family. He's assigned to the Naval base,"

"Ducky?" Gibbs questioned.

"Of course, Jethro." Ducky knelt down beside Jordon and peeled back the bloody shirt from his chest to reveal a tattoo that was placed just left of the center of his chest. "Looks like you were right,"

"Not me, Ducky." Gibbs said, as a few snaps were shot. "The anonymous tipper."

"So that's what all the fuss is about?" Claire asked, looking at the tattoo. It looked like a dark magic thing or something, a circle of what looked like flames and inside was a five-point star. "I did suggest cult,"

The team looked at her.

"What?"

"She did in the elevator," Tim said quietly, and now that he was looking at it, it looked the fit. "It's the only thing that connects these four marines." He answered.

"So what was he doing out here?" Tony asked, trying to divert Gibbs' attention from Claire. "He's not in a uniform, so he wasn't on duty, and how did they even know that he was with the Navy?"

"Maybe the tipper is the killer," Kate suggested.

"Don't make assumptions." Gibbs growled. "Kate, pictures. DiNozzo, sketch. McGee, bag and tag and when we get back I want you to trace that call."

 _"Right,"_ the three Agents went to the van and grabbed their kits.

"Have fun," Tony told Claire as he passed her, Kate watched him with raised brows.

"Novak..." Gibbs turned to the blonde, "Supervise, look and see if this crime scene had anything similar with O'Brian’s and Ranjer's."

"Sure, Gibbs. But I thought that you said there was nothing connecting them but the ink?" Claire told him.

"Do it anyway," Gibbs told her before turning away.

"Wow," Claire commented.

"Don't worry about him, dear. " Ducky told her. "He just likes to be thorough."

Claire just nodded and started to where the others were processing the scene, she had never really worked with Gibbs until now, but she knew his team. Or at least she knew Tim and Kate rather well, they were in evidence all the time, and Abby because she was the lab tech and the one that processed all of the evidence that Claire’s team happened to collect. Gibbs had a reputation, the whole NCIS Agency knew and Claire was sure that half of the things said were _not_ rumours.

…

"I can't believe you," Kate said as she snapped shots.

Tony looked up from his sketch pad in confusion. "What are you blaming on me this time?"

Kate put down the camera. "You know exactly what I'm taking about, trying to get into Claire's pants."

"What! I haven't even made a move on her," Tony protested.

"Exactly," she said and walked away.

Tony was left standing there. "What does that even mean, Todd? Kate!" he yelled after her and she just waved at him. What did that mean? Usually, he would have been in her pants by how. It wasn't the fact that she wasn't attractive, she was very much so and her personality didn't suck either and she wasn't girly. He'd even hit on Kate in the beginning, so why not Claire?

"Hey, Tony."

"Jeez!" he jerked his head to find Claire at his shoulder. "You tryin' to kill me?"

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Tony grinned.

Claire smiled back. "You’re pretty good," she told him, looking over his shoulder—close.

"Thanks."

"But," she said.

"But?" Tony raised a brow.

"But, see this line here?" Claire asked, reaching around and showing him said line on the pad that he was sketching the scene on. "It's not straight."

Tony snorted. "That's nice. You're not looking at it straight on," he told her.

Claire smirked at him.

"So, what have _you_ found, then?" Tony asked.

"Nothing," Claire sighed. "The only evidence in this whole place is Jordon and all he had on him is his own blood."

"Just like the others,"

"Yep," Claire nodded.

"A wasted trip?" Tony asked her.

Claire glanced down. "Not completely," she told him, her clean lips curved as she looked back up at him.

Tony's lips turned up into the flirtatious mirror of hers, "You got that--"

"Am I interrupting?" Gibbs voice growled behind them, knowing full well that he was.

They jerked apart.

"Not a bit, Boss." Tony told him without fuss.

He got a help slap for his snark, and took it with apathy.

"If you're finished, get in the truck, take Kate with you. McGee's with me," Gibbs ordered.

With a flash of his patent smirk at Claire, Tony scurried off.

Gibbs' blue gaze bore down on Claire, who looked at him.

"There isn't anything here, Agent Gibbs." She told him.

He looked at her for a long moment.

"Tim is right," Claire said, "The tattoo is the only connection, it had to be some sort of group. They were all young men, with no family, and currently aren't serving overseas."

"The tipper is our best lead, as soon as McGee tracts him." Gibbs said, "Now get in the car before I leave you behind."

And Claire was off to the car, knowing that Gibbs actually would leave her, especially in the mood that coming up with dead ends was ensuing.

"So," Tony said, before he had even pulled the truck onto the main road. "You going to just leave me hanging?"

Kate looked at him. "Oh, you do that all by yourself, Tony." She told him.

"Ha. Very funny." He mocked. "Seriously, Kate."

"Figure it out yourself, DiNozzo." She said, "It’ll do ya good."

Tony glowered at her and Kate smirked, looking out the window and ignoring him completely.

"This is going to come back and bite you in the ass," he scowled.

"Oh, Tony." She just shook her head. "Only in your disturbing dreams."

…

"Good luck with finding the source of that number, Tim." Claire said, giving the man a wave and smile as he stepped from the elevator. "And tell Abby I said hi?"

"Thanks, and I will." Tim waved back as the doors slid shut and went into Abby's lab, the metal music super loud tonight.

Claire sighed and leaned back against the elevator wall as it took her down passed autopsy and down to the garage and evidence locker. She stepped out. The garage held the cage, that was where the bigger evidence was held, say from the cars that were processed down in the garage; there was another section, this one more security tight and metal bars, passes and codes, eye I.D. and someone behind the counter on the other side of that. She made it through easily enough, she was the Supervisory Agent down here in evidence after all, something pretty big for a woman her age, but she was that good. She had an office down here, if it could even be called that, it seemed more like a closet with all of the files that were packed into it. But it was hers, and she sat back in her chair, thinking.

She was sure that that tattoo was familiar, like she had seen it a while ago, sometime. But the feeling was so faint that she knew it must be nothing. Anyway, something else was on her mind. Something that was way better to think about, and to look at in general—that something was Tony DiNozzo, someone that she could think about all day long and never get tired OF. 

She knew the type of guy that Tony was, a general flirt, only knew about one night stands, slept with any woman that was breathing. Afraid of commitment, she knew the instant she had met him two months back. But she was just attracted to that type of guy, and anyway she was the same, commitment was a problem. Ever since her childhood. But it wasn't as if anything was going to happen, they worked together, sorta, actually... today had been the first time.

"Hm." Claire mumbled thoughtfully. "Oh, well." She shrugged her shoulders in indifference.

tbc!

 


	3. Exactly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony makes a realization that stuns him, with some unbeknownst help from Kate.

The Jordon case went cold, just like the O'Brian, the Ranjer and the Quade cases. Tim had no luck tracing the anonymous tip that had come in, much to Gibbs' growing irritation. Abby had been all over those identical tattoos; up, down, sideways. Comparing the ink that was used, the date that it was applied; no useful results. Even with her vast knowledge in this area, she had never seen this particular design before. Gibbs was no party to be around, not that he was ever one to begin with.

They got a new case yesterday, Petty Officer Jessica Varn. She was found shot and murdered in an alley next to a strip club. It sucked that she was killed, but at least it was something to distract Gibbs for a while.

…

Tony let out an explosive breath, his lips moving with it. "What to do, what to do." He wondered, his pen currently flipping between his fingers. He leaned back in his chair, his feet up on the corner of his desk. There was one thing in particular, or a certain person that he could think about, and he found himself doing just that.

A week before, Kate, ever so annoying had made an outlandish statement, one that sent him into a long period of glowers and scowls.

"I can't believe you,"

"What are you blaming on me this time?"

_"You know exactly what I'm taking about_ — _ trying to get into Claire's pants." _

"What! I haven't even made a move on her,"

"Exactly,"

 _Exactly what_?! Tony wanted to yell... at her nonetheless, because what in the hell did that mean? Shouldn't Kate be happy that he wasn't hitting on her friend, the  ungrateful woman. She acted one way and then said another, contradicting each other so completely that it left Tony reeling. No matter how many women he had slept with, it never really prepared him for what women were really like. And he didn't know that so he couldn't compare. She'd told him to figure it out himself, but figure what out, exactly?

Kate knew, apparently, otherwise she wouldn't have said anything. And he knew that she took joy as he floundered. Novak... Claire Novak. He hadn't known her until two months and two weeks ago, he didn't know how he had never met her before. It wasn't like she was new, she was friends with Tim and Kate, Abby, she knew Ducky and Gibbs was clearly aware of her. So what the hell was up with that? It might be the fact that the Dust Bunnies— ahem, Evidence Techs—were all guys, except for Claire. No way could she be mistaken for a guy, not in a million years.

Ah, that body was smoking’! He could look at her all day, and all through the night, he could think about her too and never get sick of it. He'd never thought about another woman like that before. Hm, that was interesting. He tried to have relationships with women, but with his job and his personality, he'd never felt the fit. They never interested him longer than a night, hence, one night stands. It sounded bad, but it was the truth. So what was it about Claire, she was beautiful, so why hadn't he tried to take her out?

_God, you are such an idiot, DiNozzo._

He could hear Kate in his head, he didn't like it one bit.

But, yeah, he was an idiot, that wasn't anything new. So, why hadn't he asked Claire out, he knew that she liked him, she had to, what will all those smiles and looks and the closed distance. So maybe he didn't asked her out because he didn't want her to be like all those other chicks.

Got it in a million.

So, then, that meant that he actually... for real... for the first time...

Tony sat up fast with the realization. " _Whoa_!" he breathed. And it was luck, too, that he had reached that conclusion, the one that he realized that he actually liked Claire, could see himself with her, because he narrowly missed being clipped in the ear by Gibbs.

"Oh, nice dodge!" Kate cheered from behind her desk at a safe distance.

"What do you think you're doing, DiNozzo?" Gibbs’ demand, like always, was accompanied by an icy glare.

"I think I'm sitting here, but I can't be too sure. Can you confirm?" Tony accidentally snarked. "OW!" Gibbs' hand came back for another round.

"Oooh," Kate winced. "Missed that one." 

Gibbs' gaze shot to her and she zipped her lips and sat in her chair. Tony sent her a look too and she shrugged her shoulders in return.

"I interviewed Varn's friends and family," Tony droned, "She had just gotten back from overseas. She was an Intelligence Currier, she took information from one ranking officer to another, or wherever it needed to go. She could have been targeted just on that alone; the killer thought that she had information that she really didn't or she wouldn't tell the routes of the other curriers and it got her killed." He took a breath, "A memorable quote of the day: 'she's changed', to put it shortly. She was more secretive, even seemed skittish upon her arrival back home."

"We should probably look into what information she was responsible for handling," Kate suggested.

"Do it." Gibbs said, not taking his eyes off of Tony.

"Right," Kate nodded and picked up her phone.

"Where's McGee?" Tony asked, now starting to feel the usual effects of Gibbs' stare.

"In the lab with Abs." Kate said.

Tony nodded. Okay, so this was getting a little uncomfortable now. "How'd it go with her superiors?"

"Her overseas CO is still overseas and we can't contact him yet." Kate filled in.

"That's gonna be your job, DiNozzo. Unless that's too complicated for you," Gibbs said before he bulldozed he way out of the bullpen.

"Not at all, boss." Tony said to empty air.

Kate chuckled, "Nice going, Tony."

He glared at her. "Aren't you supposed to be on the phone?"

"I'm on hold," she glared back.

Tony smirked.

"I was a Secret Service Agent, higher clearance than Gibbs. Now, I've been bumped down to hold."

"Did you know, that being in the Secret Service means that you protect the President--"

"Duh,"

"It _doesn't_ mean," Tony continued, "That you're privy to government secrets."

" _Meh_ ," Kate made a face at him.

"Yeah, I can see all the potential boyfriends trying to swim into your net now."

"Shut up, Tony."

Tony picked up the phone and dialled the number in the file. It rang before someone on the other end picked up. "Yes. Hello, this is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo with NCIS. Could you connect me with Gunnery Sergeant Sam Dawn, please? Thanks," he covered the mouth piece with his hand and looked at Kate across from him. "Look who's not on hold."

"Can it, DiNozzo. Seriously,"

Tony laughed. "Got it in one, _not_ a _million_ , Kate."

Kate just shook her head in confusion. "Whatever you say," her expression clearly saying that that last slap to head must've dislodge something very important.

tbc!

 


	4. Welcome to the Team!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony expresses his feelings, but gets some bad news that force him to shut them down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lapse in time has passed; the next day.

Tony whistled tunelessly all the way through the elevator ride up to the bullpen, much to Kate's annoyance. The elevator opened with a muted ding and she stepped out in relief—or dove out. 

"Seriously, Tony." She said, stalking to her desk. "Just for once—shut up."

"Whoa!" Tony gave a whistle as he set his bag down behind his desk. "Did someone keep you up last night, Kate?" His brows danced.

Kate spun around to him, her mouth open is disgust.

"Tony!" it was actually Tim who protested.

"What, Probie?" Tony looked at him.

"That is very rude,"

"Thank you, McGee." Kate said. "That was very nice, unlike _some people_." She glared at Tony.

"Come on!" Tony looked between the two of them. "You guys are _so_ boring,"

"We're not children," Kate corrected.

"No, you're just a Nun and aN Alter Boy, with a stick up your asses."

Now they both looked at him with open mouths.

"Jeez!" he ran fingers through his hair, "Sorry," he sighed. "Where's Gibbs?"

"He up stairs in the conference room," Tim told him.

"Why's he up there?"

"He's with Claire--"

Tony didn't wait for Tim to finish, usually it wasn't something good if Gibbs was alone with another Agent, especially one that they didn't work with, and it was in a closed off room. He took the stairs two at time, Tim and Kate watched him go with raised brows and a shared look.

Tony was about to knock, but the door swung open, and there stood Gibbs.

"Boss..." Tony started.

Gibbs just looked at him before he went passed and back down the stairs. Tony watched him for a second before he peeked into the conference room. It was quiet and he spotted Claire down at the end of the table, looking at the table top.

"Claire?" he asked quietly, as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, "Are you alright?"

Claire looked up, a dazed look in her aqua coloured eyes. "Tony?"

"Yeah," he nodded as he came around to her. Slow. "You okay?" he asked again.

"I, uh, I don't know." She told him.

"Okay," Tony nodded. "So let's talk it through." He pulled out the chair adjacent to her and sat down.

"O-okay," she nodded.

"So, what did Gibbs do?" Tony encouraged.

"Um," Claire licked her lips and took a breath. "Gibbs... he-he pulled me from Forensics and transferred me."

"What!" Tony demanded. He couldn't believe this, he was pissed. "He can't do that. He's not your boss, you're your boss." He said in a harsh breath.

"Tony," Claire took his hand in hers.

He looked at her, his breath coming down. Her hand was warm and he liked the feel of his on his, he swallowed. His heart was actually racing, wow, he _did_ like her. Damn Kate. He leaned in and kissed her. What? He did. He leaned in and he kissed her. Her lips were soft, just like he imagined. She didn't push him back, so he was right that she liked him too. He don't know why he did it, she was getting  transferred and he didn't know when he would see her again. He sat back sated.

" _Yeowza_ ," he breathed.

Claire was stunned. Tony was a great of a kisser as she knew he would be, you couldn't be the way that he was and not be. She would just love it to happen again.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Sorry," he said, "It just sorta happened."

"I don't mind," she said.

Tony grinned. "Me either,"

"I wouldn't even mind if we did it again,"

His grin widened as he leaned forward to kiss her again, but he remembered something. "Wait. Where did you get transferred to?"

"Oh," Claire looked surprised for a second. "I got transferred to your team."

"What?" Tony demanded. This was different than before, this changed everything. "Why?"

Claire shrugged her shoulders. "How am I supposed to know? He's your boss,"

"And now he's yours..." Tony trailed off in defeat.

"So? You sound disappointed," she said in confusion. "This way we can be together during cases."

Tony shook his head, his heart was sunken. "We can't date,"

"What?" now Claire was the one that was hurt. She thought that he liked her, but apparently not enough to date. But what else could she have expected? This was the kind of man she was attracted to.

"It's one of Gibbs' rules," Tony explained, "Never date a team mate. It gets too complicated in the field."

"Oh," Claire felt better that she knew that Tony wasn't like all those other guys, but even then they couldn't date.

"Oh," Tony agreed. He looked down at their entwined fingers, they fit together, they belonged. But now, because of Gibbs, they would be torn apart. He stood from the chair, his fingers slipping from hers.

"So, what does this mean?" she asked, looking up at him.

"It means, we're just friends." He told her as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. He left after that, not able to bear being so near and not able to touch. Being on the team was now going to be more torture than fun.

"Tony," she called, "Wait!" she fOllowed him, but he was already down the stairs at the elevator. "Tony!" she was down the stairs, but by the time that Claire had gotten to the bullpen, he was already in the elevator.

"Claire?" Tim asked in worry.

"Is everything okay?" Kate said, coming to her friend, "Tony?"

Claire turned to the two Agents, her arms crossed over her chest. "Looks like we're team mates," she told them, trying to play happy, but by their looks she knew that it didn't work out to well.

"That's cool," Tim said in confusion. "Isn't it?"

"Yeah," Claire nodded. "It is, Tim."

tbc!

 


	5. Blow-out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony goes to get some comfort.

The elevator ride to Abby's lab was one spent in a long depression, one that Tony found completely justified. He couldn't believe that in the same moment he had found what he was sure was love and then had his heart broken. Well, it was broken but not by Claire. Maybe that would have been better. That, instead of having her around and not being able to do anything.

His head was hung as he stepped from the elevator and walked into blaring, screeching, heavy metal music.

"Tony!" Abby said happily when she noticed him there, and skipped to him. "You're not going to believe-- Tony?" she went and shut off the music. "Tony, are you okay?"

Tony silently shook his head.

Abby took his arm and lead him to her desk and pushed him down in the chair. "Tony?" she repeated. "What's wrong?" He sighed long and hard, before he finally looked up at her. Just by looking into his eyes, the Goth knew that something really bad must've happened. She got down on her knees and looked up at him. "Whatever it is, I'm sure that we can fix it."

"Do you know Claire?" his voice broke on her name and he shook his head. "Agent Novak from down in evidence?"

"Yup," Abby nodded rapidly, smiling wide. "I've known her for years, she great! Did you know that her and Kate were childhood friends? They went to college together,"

"They did?" Tony asked, for a moment taken from his issues at the fantasy that if Kate was in the wet T-shirt contest during spring break, then Claire had to of had been as well. He found a smirk curving his lips, _oh yeah._ But it soon disappeared and he shook his head. "No,"

"So, what about Claire?" Abby asked, trying to steer them back onto the road.

"We met almost three months ago," Tony said. "How come I've never met her before? How is that even possible?"

"She's been here before Kate, but you never go see the Forensic guys." Abby said.

"Right. I like her, Abby." Tony finally told his friend.

"Aah, Tony." Abby said. "That's cool! You guys... you two would be awesome together. You're perfect, Tony, you have to ask her out, you have to!"

"We-we kissed, actually." Tony said.

"Oh my God!" Abby squealed and shot to her feet, grabbing Tony's hands and started to jump up and down, "Tony!" She stopped and looked down at him. "Why are you jumping with me?" she asked him, pouting.

"She got transferred," Tony looked up at her, and she could see the broken heart in his eyes.

"So what?" she said grumply. "Haven't you ever heard of long-distance relationships? God, Tony, you're such an idiot."

"You didn't let me finish," Tony told her.

"So, tell me." She demanded.

A look of betrayal crossed his face, "Gibbs was the one that got her transferred,"

"What!"

His expression was pained and his voice cracked as he continued, "To the team."

"No!" Abby shook her head. "If he knew he wouldn't have done it."

"For the past two months, every time the two of us had ended up alone, he would show up and all but shove us apart." Tony told her. "He knew, Abs." He said, "He knew."

Abby stomped to her foot. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know, Abs. But now because of that _stupid rule_ ," he spat. "I can have nothing more than a friendship with Claire."

"You really like her?" Abby asked him, "That much?"

Tony stood and held her hands, squeezing them as he stared into her green eyes. Really stared, trying to portray all of his inner-feelings through his eyes. Something that he had never done before, or thought that he would do. It was better to just shove them down and never let them surface. But he liked Claire, _really_ liked her like no other woman, he wanted Abby to see it, to understand  what this meant to him.

"Oh, Tony." she swallowed. She had never seen him like this before, in love; it was what Tim was like before the two of them broke up because of the same rule. "Screw Gibbs' rule!" she blurted.

"What?" he said in surprise.

Abby nodded. "Screw that rule, seriously, Tony."

"Abby... I've never heard you talk like this before."

"Look, Timmy and I, most of the reason why we broke up was because we wanted different things, and not because of Gibbs' rule. We weren't meant for each other. But I know you, and I've met Claire. You two, you two are perfect for each other, so screw the rule and go get her, Tony. Or I will do it for you." she pulled him through the automatic doors and to the entrance of her lab. "I'm serious, Tony. You go right now and you tell Gibbs, 'no'." And she shoved him out the door and shut and locked it.

"What?" Tony spun around. "Abby!" he pounded on the door.

"Go, Tony. Go tell Claire that you're in love with her and tell Gibbs no."

It didn't take Tony long to give up; when Abby put her head to something, she was scarily persistent. Sometimes, like during cases, it was a good thing; but now, it wasn't so much. He sighed, could he do it? Stand up to Gibbs? Even the thought sent chills through him; it was a bizarre thought and what seemed like an impossible scenario. He ran a hand down his face as he turned form the door; he would never have even considered this normally, but normally, he wasn't in love.

"Is it true?"

"Jeez-us!" Tony shouted through his teeth, leaning back against the door. "What the hell, Todd?"

"Sorry," Kate apologized. "But is what Abby said true?"

"Kate..."

"Tony."

Tony looked at her, his teeth clenched. "Yes, Kate. I like Claire,"

"By how much?"

"Enough to considered yelling at Gibbs,"

"Wow, that's a lot." Kate concluded, her eyes looking Tony up and down. "So, when did you finally figure it out?"

Tony glared at her. "Yesterday," he ground out.

Kate smirked. "Took you long enough,"

"What do you want, Kate?"

Kate sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "You seemed upset,"

Tony scoffed. "That's a first!"

Kate made a face. "Claire said that Gibbs transferred her to the team, so that means the two of you can't date."

"Thanks for the lovely reminder," Tony sneered.

"Tony!"

He looked away.

"If you're serious... Abby!" she called, "Is he serious?"

" _He's totally serious!"_ Abby yelled through the door.

"I'm right here," Tony complained.

"Now that I know that you're serious about this, DiNozzo. That you actually like Claire enough not to pull your usual bullshit," Kate said. "I agree with Abby. Screw Gibbs' stupid made-up rule,"

"Is that so?"

"Shit!" Kate shouted in surprise, jerking back next to Tony just as he shouted, "Damnit!" but that wasn't all because behind the door, Abby blurted, " _Fuck_!"

The door opened and the two Agent looked behind themselves in shook. "What?" Abby demanded. "We're all adults here."

Gibbs cleared his throat and their heads shot back around to him, he raised a brow. "Well? You were saying?" he stared at Kate.

Kate flushed. She opened her mouth, "Uh," she had protected the President for God's sake! But she was frozen now under that cold and calculating gaze.

"Gibbs!" Abby pushed through the gap between Kate and Tony to stand in front of the two. She was fuming, her hands planted on her hips, her mouth scrunched in anger as she glared at Gibbs. "Why'd you transfer Claire?" she demanded to know.

"Novak's a good Agent." Gibbs stated.

Abby puffed out her cheeks, she couldn't deny that; Claire was an excellent Agent. "Everyone here is a good Agent, you've never got them transferred to the team."

"I got McGee, didn't I?"

Abby looked behind her, her expression saying: _help me out, jeez!_

"Seriously, boss." Tony finally spoke up. "You've been hating for the last two months."

Gibbs glared. "There is a killer out there, on the loose and we haven't had any leads after four murders, DiNozzo. Of course I'm pissed!"

Crap. He was reasoning the hell out of this.

"No other team has five members," Kate finally piped up, "It's a uneven number. That means someone will be left without a partner, it's too risky."

"Not if I keep McGee here."

"What?" Abby shouted. "You can't do that to Tim!" she protested.

"She's right," Tony agreed and they looked at him in surprise. "You can't keep McGee grounded because he’s better with all that computer stuff."

"I'm not," Gibbs said.

"What?" they said in confusion.

Gibbs actually rolled his eyes. "Novak apparently misunderstood me; if any other murders happened and the victims had the tattoo, she would be transferred upstairs to work it with us."

"So..." Tony swallowed, not wanting to get his hopes up only to have them shoved down again. "She's-she's still down in evidence then? Like not assigned to the team?"

"No, DiNozzo."

"So your rule doesn't apply," Abby said, a grin ready to split her face.

"No. Now, quit acting like children and get back to work." Gibbs growled.

"Right, boss man!" Abby cheered and grabbed his sleeve, tugging him into the lab. "Have I got some news for you."

"So," Kate said awkwardly, turning to Tony. "That was a big blow-up for nothing."

"Apparently," Tony said. "And you know that there are going to be some painful head slaps in our future."

Kate winced. "Yeah," the two of them got into the elevator. "So, you still in love with Claire?"

"Yes, not that it's any of your business." Tony growled.

"It is to! Claire is one of my best friends, Tony. We've known each other since high school," Kate told him.

Tony rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you said: shit." He said as they got off on their floor.

"Me? What about Abby?" Kate tried to divert.

"Okay, I'll give you that one." Tony relented.

"I wonder what Gibbs'll do about it?"

"What Gibbs will do about what?" Tim asked from behind his desk.

"Well, keeping you at the desk, Probie." Tony said casually as he sat at his desk.

"What?" Tim demanded. "I haven't done anything wrong!" he protested, panicked as he looked between the two Agents.

"Relax, McGee." Kate said. "It was just a joke."

"Not a very good one," he muttered, glaring at Tony who smirked back, his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.

So something little had gotten out of control, but that was fixed now. So Tony would find Claire, and he would tell her, and hopefully, she wouldn't hate him for it.

tbc!

 


	6. The Mix-up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire can't believe that she now hated her job, but then again...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Graphic SMUT between Tony/Claire.

Claire gritted her teeth throughout the day, forced her expression not to crumple. She worked down in evidence for the remainder of the day, for the last time. God, this sucked. She wasn't really an active Field Agent, not like Gibbs' MCRT team; so she didn't know why he would want her. Plus, she realised that it would make the team uneven, even if it would have been nice to see Kate more often and Tim wasn't bad either, and she could think of nothing wrong with being around Tony. Other than the fact that apparently Gibbs had stupid rules and one being that co-workers can't date. She saw reason in this, of course, you would develop a deeper set of feelings for that other person and thus their lives would become more important than the other team mates lives. But she was a woman and she was emotional, right? So it ought to be true. She'd been friends with Kate since high school, every time there was a case, she got time with Abby, she knew Tim since he first transferred here from Norfolk a year before. She loved them each in different ways, but their priority to her wouldn't change if she and Tony got to actually date.

This fact actually surprised Claire, she had found it hard to trust people enough to fall in love with them when her father left when she was twelve; it was like the ultimate betrayal. And of course, like any teenage girl, it was pretty easy for her to fall in love. She met Kate, had a few boyfriends and _thought_ that it was love, when it clearly wasn't. So what was it about Tony? She didn't know, she just knew that it was there and it sucked that she couldn't do anything about it.

So she closed herself off in her closet-office as it neared the end of her shift. She felt like crying but didn't, she was a grown woman. But it didn't make her feel any better, at least she would still be able to be around him, if anything and friends were better than nothing.

"Claire,"

"I said not to bug me," Claire growled, lifting her head from where it lay in her folded arms. "Tony?" the glare instantly dropped. "What are you--?"

"It was a misunderstanding," Tony said, closing the door.

"What?"

"God, Claire. Gibbs said that when there was another case with the tattoo, then you would work on the team and not in the evidence locker." Tony told her, his face hurting from the happiness that he was feeling.

Claire sat up. "What?" she repeated, feeling really slow. And now was not the time.

"You're not on the team,"

Claire thought back to that morning, to what Gibbs told her. "I'm getting you transferred," after that, she may have blanked out. Jeez, she was such an idiot.

"So that means..." she shot from her chair, the same happiness splitting her face that was Tony's.

"That means... this," Tony said, taking her face in between his hands and kissed her.

She didn't fight in, no way in hell would she fight this. He lead her back until her ass hit the edge of her desk, he pushed her down, knocking things off onto the floor to make room. He paused and pulled away, looking at the mess.

"Leave it," Claire gasped, knocking the rest onto the floor as she pulled him back for more kissing. She could clean up the mess later. Her hands were in his short hair as he kissed her neck, her hands trailing down his back. She was glad that he didn't decide to wear a suit this morning. She tugged at the edges and he let up just long enough for her to pull the sweater over his head, at the same time he pulled Claire's T-shirt over her head.

"Here?" he asked.

Claire laughed, "You ask that _after_ you take my shirt off?"

"Well," he looked flustered and he was flushed. "I just wanted to make sure."

"Well, you have a green light." She told him, sitting up on her elbows.

"Like, here?" he asked. "At NCIS."

"Well, yeah."

"But... _here?_ Like,  with Gibbs, you know he'll find out. He finds everything out," Tony said.

"So, what?"

"How sound proof in your office?"

"Jeez, well no one ever seemed to notice any other time I brought a guy back here." Claire deadpanned.

Tony looked down at her.

"I don't know, Tony, I've never done this before. I've never slept with a guy at work before." She told him.

"I'm flattered," Tony smirked.

Claire shook her head. "Fine. Can you hold off long enough until we get back to your place?"

"Can you?"

They looked at each other for a second before they both scrambled to get their discarded shirts. 

"I can clean this up later," Claire said as she shoved him out the door and locked it. "Now hurry up."

"You think I'm taking my time?" he asked as they walked at a quick pace to the parking lot and Tony's car.

"Nice car," Claire noted.

"Thanks," Tony said as he pulled from his spot with a squeal of tires. It seemed like forever before they were through the check point and back at Tony's apartment. He was barely through the door when Claire tugged him back around, kissing him heatedly, pushing him back against the closed door. She yanked her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, already tugging on his sweater. "Hold your horses," he told her.

"I haven't had sex in a long time, Tony. Now, are you going to take it off or do I have to find someone else?" she raised her brow.

Tony ripped it over his head. "Don't have to tell me twice."

"Good." She kissed him, her hands gliding over his bare chest, loving the fell of his skin, the light curls on his chest.

Tony smirked as he pushed her back, his hands on her slim hips as he led her back through his apartment and pushed her onto his bed. He kicked oFf his boots and she yanked her own off, the socks went next. The belt, god, he hated his belt right now. 

"Please tell me you have something," Claire breathed as she jumped from the bed and helped him with the belt. They dropped to his ankles.

"Oh, I have a lot." He told her, a hand in her hair as he looked at her. Her long hair was around her bare shoulder, her perky breasts encased in a black lace bra. Gosh, she was perfect.

"I'll be the judge of that," Claire's fingers were in the band of Tony's boxers and shoved them down. She looked down between them and smirk. "I wouldn't have expected any less." Her hand trailed down his chests and she dropped to her knees, coming face to Tony's penis. She grasped his cock and Tony gasped as her lips surrounded his head. She twisted her hand as she bobbed her head, trying to get as much of Tony's cock in her mouth without gagging, she ran her tongue alone the underside of his penis as it hardened before she stood back up. "Well?"

He gave her a little push and she fell back onto his bed. He took her in, splayed across his bed, his sheets, her skin was pale and it made her aqua eyes stand out. He kicked out his feet from his pants and smirked before he jumped onto the bed with excellent judgement, and landed with one of her knees between her legs. She smiled up at him as he leaned over her, his hands supporting his weight on either side of her shoulders. He dipped his head and caught her lips in his, they were soft and slightly swollen from their earlier heated make-out. They were still new to him and he took advantage of that. Her arms wrapped around his neck as their tongues twirled together. He finally broke away, but only to trail kisses down her jaw, her head rolled back to give him access to her neck and she sighed as his tongue glided along her skin.

"You taste good," his voice was husky, his breath cool against her hot, wet skin.

Claire chuckled, her fingers intertwined in his hair. He kissed along her shoulder, her collarbone, the tip of his tongue glided in between her breast. He reached between them and undid the front clasp of her bra and her breasts sprang free with an intake of breath. He took the straps from her shoulders, his finger tracing along her arms.

"Tony," she breathed, her voice smouldering above his head, and if he ever heard it, this was what a bedroom voice was.

Tony didn't even try and keep the smirk from his lips as he cupped her breasts. They were bigger than he thought and they filled his hands, soft and perfect, and there was no way that he would even try to resist twisting her nipples lightly. Claire cried out lightly and Tony looked up at her, "Oh, momma."

She gave him an incredulous look, but couldn't help but bite her lip and Tony couldn't keep his lips away any longer. His lips closed around the nub, it was hardened and the same natural rose colour as her lips, and he now knew that every time he looked at her lips, this would come to mind. He lips tightened around the flesh, he took a hold of it between his teeth and his tongue flicked out. 

Claire gasped for air. "Please..." she moaned as he pulled back and looked at her; she was flushed. Tony clicked his tongue, before he latched onto her other nipple, never one to leave anything out. He bit down, his teeth grazing over the sensitive flesh, he worried it between his teeth before that moan turned into a pleasured gasp, " _Oh_!"

Her hands were fisted in his hair and she drew him close to her, he was thrilled with the feel of her soft breasts against his bare chest. He kissed her again, he could never be sick of her lips, as his fingers feathered over the flesh of her hips until they reached the waist of her jeans. His hands reached them and he undid the button and pulled down the zipper. He pulled from her lips despite her protest and shimmied down the bed. He peeled the material from her skin and tossed the jeans away. He kissed the flesh if her hip and bit the edge of her panties as he started to pull them away, but he paused and stared at the spot where hip turned into pelvic on the left side. He held the material back with his fingers.

"Why'd you stop?" Claire asked in confusion, sitting up on her elbows so that she could see Tony.

"You have a tattoo?" he asked.

"Yeah," her brows were furrowed. "I got it when I was sixteen."

"A pair of Angel wings?"

"Not the fluffy kind," they were dark shadows with electricity shooting around them, that was the way that they were in her head since she was a kid. Her father was a very religious man, that was how she was raised until he left when she was twelve, she guess some of it must have stuck.

"No. But what about you, are you an Angel?"

Claire snorted softly. "Why don't you find out?"

Tony smirked as he licked the inked flesh and she held her legs up over his head as he pulled her panties off and they joined the other discarded clothes scattered on the floor. He took her ankles, his hands running up her shins until he got to her knees and spread her legs on bed. He looked at her as he found a comfortable spot between her legs; she had a small strip of hair at the curve of her pelvis, the same golden colour.

"I don't do this for just anyone," he told her, his breath puffing against the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.

She huffed, "I'm flattered,"

"As you should be," he blew on her folds and she shivered with pleasure.

He traced the edge of her lips and she moaned at the touch. He used his fingers to spread her open, his tongue explored her lips, the soft and delicate inside flesh of her folds, taking them in his mouth and sucking on them, pulling on them until they snapped back like an elastic. He could hear her breath, it was heaving as she gripped the bed's sheets in her fingers. She was getting wet, and that was what Tony loved, the fact that women create their own natural lubricant. His nose was set it the strip of hair as he licked, tasting her inside of the wetness, spreading it around as he took the little nub that was flushed and swollen between his lips.

She tried to arch into him and he let her as his tongue trailed down and spread it around until she was thoroughly wet, as he dipped the tip of his tongue into her entrance. "Oh, oh..." she moaned. Now Tony had to hold her hips down, otherwise she would suffocate him. He rubbed her with two of his fingers until they were wet, and glided them around her entrance. "Don't be a tease!" she gasped out just as he dipped his fingers inside of her, and her gasp turned into a cry as he delved his fingers into her over and again, stretching her open. "Cond'm," Claire was barely able to get out and Tony all but dove across the bed, and her, to get to his nightstand at the head of his bed. 

He jerked open the drawer and scrambled for the familiar package. He finally found what he was looking for and tore the wrapper open with his teeth, and rolled the condom in place over his throbbing and eager cock. He kissed her as he turned her on her side and lifted one leg over his shoulder, giving him better access and sight to her. One hand stayed on her thigh as the other one grasped his hardened shaft. He tapped her clit with the head of his cock and they both gasped before he traced it down her folds and into her entrance. 

"Claire," he chocked out as he pushed himself into her fully before pulling all the way out again, he entered her once more and stayed there. He moved his hips, back and forth, thrusting into her, revelling in the feel of her hot heat and the twitch of the muscles that encased him. He rubbed her clit as he let her leg fall and lifted her up onto him as he used the headboard for some support, his other arm wrapped around her back. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he thrust into her again and again, "Hah-h," her fingers leaving red streaks across his back, as she bounced on him, their flesh meeting with a smack.

"Oh, god..." Claire gasped against his lips, fusing them together, their kisses hot and desperate, and it left them gasping for air. "More!" Tony was never one to disappoint. "Harder--" she tore away from his mouth and with a ragged growl he tugged her off of him and flipped her. She let out a surprised grunt, one that turned into something different as he grabbed her hips and jerked her up, entering her again from behind. She moaned as she settle up on her knees, gripping the headboard in a white-knuckled grip as he drove into her. 

His grip on her hips was enough leave marks in her pale skin, but he didn't loosen it. "I--I'm close--" he warned her.

"Tony," she pleaded, her voice hoarse as it cut off and he felt her hot, wet walls tighten around his cock, sucking him in. And he couldn't take it anymore. He reach around Claire and in between her legs, lightly scraping his nail over her clit as pushed as deep as he could get, and this time, when her muscles constricted around him, it pulled everything he had out. He pushed her flat against the wall as he came into her, and could feel her wetness as she did the same. "Tone!" she gasped out.

His breath was hot on the back of her sweaty neck, as he tried to catch his breath. He fell onto his side and he took her with him, pulling himself free. They were boneless and it took effort for Tony to slip the condom off. He brushed her locks away and kissed her neck, she rolled around to him and he pulled her close, now kissing her lips.

"Mm," Claire kissed him back, slow and leisurely.

Tony chuckled against her lips. "I could do this all night," he murmured.

"You'll hear no protest from me," she told him.

He furrowed his brows ever so slightly, "Do you have any plans?"

"Um," she thought about it for a second, playing with him. "I don't know, I think there's an offer in the air."

"Really? Me too,"

"Well," Claire pushed him flat on his back and threw a leg over, straddling him. "Maybe we could collaborate a little." She suggested, waggling her brows.

"I'll have my people call your people..." he trailed off as she took his hands and slapped them to her breasts, then bit her bottom lip. It took his breath away.

"I think we can work it out on our own," Claire whispered.

"Ya-yeah," Tony nodded, his voice strained.

tbc!

 


	7. I know what you did last night... Unfortunately.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It didn't take Kate long to figure it out, in fact, she knew even before they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next morning.

"Ugh," Kate could tell the instant she saw him.

"What?" Tony sighed, "What now?"

"Nothing," she turned back to her computer.

"You can't just not nothing me," Tony said, coming in front of her desk.

"I can and I did, DiNozzo." Kate said in a monotonous tone of voice.

Tony crossed his arms. "I'm just going to glare at you until you tell me," he narrowed his gaze at her, the trick to it was to let his gaze slide slightly out of focus.

"It's not going to work," Kate told him, "You're not Gibbs."

Tony opened his mouth, but someone else beat him to it.

"He's not, but I am." Came Gibbs' voice from behind them, double _whacks_ and an echo of _ow!_ filled the air. "I didn't think either of you got paid for standing around."

Tony winced and scurried back to his desk. He glared over at Kate as he sat in his chair, "This isn't over, Todd."

She just stuck her tongue out at him and shook her head.

…

Kate squinted at Claire as she took sip from her coffee.

"What?" Claire asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

"That is very lady-like, Claire." Kate commented.

Claire rolled her eyes. "You've seen worse, _and_ this before."

"Unfortunately, yes." She said dryly.

"Come on!"

"Fine. I can't believe you slept with Tony."

"What!" she scoffed, "I--Pfft-- I didn't..." her pale face turned bright red, it was practically glowing.

"Right!" Kate was the one to scoff this time. "Even Tim is a better liar than that."

Claire started to laugh, very awkwardly.

"Jeez," Kate shook her head. "I know you, Claire, since we were fifteen. I can tell when you've had sex."

"Ooh!" Claire's gaze shot around the break room.

"Oh, relax!" Kate told her.

"Relax?" Claire demanded. "You're all but yelling it out."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I was right."

"You already knew that you were right."

"Yeah. But I wanted you to admit..."

"That I had sex with Tony," Claire finished through gritted teeth.

"Wah," Kate went through a whole body shudder.

Claire smirked at her evilly. "And you're my best friend so I'm going to tell you everything in microscopic detail!"

Kate's expression turned sour. "Don't you dare!"

"You're the one who asked."

"Only out of concern. " Kate made a grouper face.

Claire rolled her eyes again. "I'm not a kid,"

"You're not," Kate agreed. "But Tony has a reputation, and not a good one either."

"If you haven't already noticed, my dating history isn't getting an award any time soon."

"All the more reason,"

"All the more reason not to be worried, Kate." Claire assured her. "What better way to make a relationship work then to have two parties who completely suck at it."

"You know, that only works in movies, right?" Kate told her.

"Every movie has some sliver of truth in it," Claire told her with apparent wisdom.

Kate scoffed and shook her head, "You were made for each other," she deadpanned.

Claire grinned at her. "And the sex is great,"

"Ugh," Kate made a show of gagging, something that wasn't very hard.

…

They got a break in the Varn case, while going through her personal belongings, Tim discovered a burn phone. Luckily, he was able to trace the number, the only one that was in the memory card. It was to a payphone downtown, dialled at the same time every Tuesday. Tim and Abby were able to go through all the tapes from a camera that was set up a few stores down and narrow the field easily enough. The guy was a civilian and Gibbs had him in interrogation while Tony and Kate viewed. 

"Quit staring, Tony." Kate told him.

"I'm not," his arms were crossed over his chest, and even though he was looking through the glass, he was looking at Kate's reflection.

"You are,"

"Not,"

"Are,"

"Not,"

"Yes, you are, DiNozzo. Now don't make me clock you!"

"Wow, you have some anger in you."

"Tony," Kate ground through her teeth, glaring at him.

"Fine." Tony turned to her. "What's your problem?"

"My problem?!" she demanded.

"Yes, ever since I came in this morning, you've been sending me dirty looks and making gross noises at me."

Kate glared at him. "You slept with Claire," she said through her teeth.

"Oh," Tony stood back. "That's uh, that's not true."

"You're such an idiot DiNozzo." She shook her head in disgust. "I know you, and as much as it repulses me, I am a profiler and I can tell when you've have sex."

"That is gross,"

"And Claire is my best friend. So I know,"

"Okay, not that it's any of your business, but this is your fault, anyway, Todd." Tony blamed.

"How?"

"You're the one that pointed out the fact that I actually liked Claire with all your _exactly-s."_ He mocked her on the last word.

"What does that mean?"

"That means that I probably wouldn’t have realized that I actually liked Claire if you hadn't pointed it out to me when we were on the Jordon case." He told her, smug.

Kate glowered at him, 'cause it was true, she may have egged him on, for some crazy reason that seemed beyond her reason. "Still, I know you, Tony. And if you hurt her, I will kill you and Abby will help to make sure that there is no trace evidence left."

"I'll keep that in mind, but don't get too eager."

It turned out that Varn was trying to trade government information, but they quickly put a cork in that.

tbc!

 


	8. Day Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The team helps Claire and Tony move in, until Claire gets called in to process a scene for the FBI.

"Okay... Okay.... Ooooh," Claire moaned as she bounced on Tony's lap, his hands were on her hips, her knees on either side of his thighs, her hands clutching the back of her couch. She was getting a cramp, but no way was she going to stop, not when it felt this good. This was better than any kind of alcohol or drug in the world, and even if she was about to be murdered, she would still keep going; lifting up and feeling his cock leave her, only to drop down and feel him inside of her again. Tony kissed her, biting where neck met shoulder with enough pressure for her to feel it, but not enough to leave a mark, as much as he would have liked. Her hands went into his hair and she pulled him to her breast. "Fuck, I love you." She panted.

Tony stilled her hips, stopping her movements and Claire pulled his head back to look at him heated confusion. "What?" he asked her.

"What," she repeated, out of breath.

"Are you just saying that because we're having sex?" he asked her, just as breathless; it was killing him to keep her still but he really needed and wanted to know.

"No, Tony. I love you because I do,"

Tony smirked. "Any other reasons?"

"A bunch," she told him, yanking his head back by his hair. "One. You fuck me so good, I'm still coming hours after." She kissed him, biting his lip and stretching it as she came away.

"God, you're hot. And anyone who doesn't fall in love with you is a complete idiot."

"Do that mean you have?" she asked, weaving her hips despite his grip.

His breath came out jagged. "Do you even have to ask? I... Love you, Claire Novak." He crashed his lips to hers and their tongues entangled as he moved his hands from her hips to either side of her neck. She resumed her bouncing, but they were slower this time, more purposeful to fit the kiss; slow, sensual and with feeling. Tony tried to thrust into her, he couldn't help it, but he couldn't seem to do so in his current position and it was driving him crazy. "Your couch is horrible," he panted into her mouth. And it was; hard, sunken, and full of loud springs. He grabbed her ass and lifted her up, not so mush that he slipped out of her, but enough to move Claire onto her back on the coffee table. He thrusted powerfully into her as she hit the surface.

"Oh, god!" she cried out, and he didn't stop either. She could no longer string words together and was left with just sounds.

Tony was fine either way, he used all his concentration to thrust into her, hitting the right spots at the right times and in the perfect sequences. It left her boneless, her legs barely able to stay wrapped around his waist, her nails leaving more than red streaks across his bare back. He was going to get rug burn on his knees, but he didn't care, it was well worth it. Claire's head was thrown back and Tony knew that she was close, could tell with the way that she pulsated around his cock.

"I'm... co-coming!" Tony grunted, his arms around her as he lifted her completely off the table top and came, jerking inside of her. Claire cried out as she tightened around his member and arched into him, pushing him ever deeper, her thighs strained around his hips. They collapsed back onto the table, sated and breathless in ecstasy. Tony buried his face in Claire's neck, his breath hot as he kissed the slick skin. "M've in w'th m-me." He whispered against her skin.

"What?" she asked, breathless.

Tony took a moment to get his breath back, before he shifted himself up onto shaky elbows. He looked at Claire, beautiful as ever; her skin glistening with sex-sweat, her golden hair around her head like a halo, trembling with orgasm because of him. "Move in with me," he repeated.

Claire looked at him. "Are you... are you serious, Tony?" she asked.

"I am," he told her.

Claire pushed herself up, which made Tony have to sit back on his knees otherwise he would get a face full of her glorious breasts, there was no way that he could mind that, but he was trying to ask something very important of Claire. Something that was huge. And something that he never asked another woman before.

"And this isn't just because you were coming when you asked?"

"If your answer is no, then just say it." He told, looking away, his chin jutting out.

"Tony... Tony," she repeated when he didn't look at her and finally she put a finger under his chin and made him look at her, before she cupped his cheek. "Have I told you yet that I love, and that yes, I will move in with you?" Tony grinned at her and how could she resist kissing those lips? "So, the question is..." she said, finally pulling away from his lips. "Your place, or, mine?"

…

"Are you sure that you want to do this, Claire?" Kate asked her friend as she taped the filled box.

"And you're asking me this now," Claire asked her with a raised brow, "After everything is packed?"

"Better late than never...?" she tried.

Claire scoffed. "You're acting like your in this relationship and not me," she noted riley.

"What?" Kate demanded in disgust, "That's gross!"

"There's nothing gross about it, in fact, I would be concerned if you weren't." Claire told her.

Now Kate was confused, it brushing aside the _ugh!_ of that last comment. "What does that mean?"

"It means that because you're concerned, I know that you know that this is serious, and you're just making sure--"

"That you're making a complete mistake!" Kate pointed out, with an accompanying look.

Claire sighed and shook her head. "As hard as this may be to believe--"

"I'll say."

"I love Tony, and he loves me." She simply shrugged her shoulders.

"You've only been going out for eight months, you can't fall in love and move in in that short time." Kate told her.

"If you find the right person, you do."

Kate looked disgusted. "Don't tell me you're going to go all gooey and love-y dove-y on me now, are you?"

Claire said dryly, "You're hopeless,"

"And you're back!" Kate cheered with vigour; maniacal vigour.

"You're funny," she commented, just as dry.

"Thanks," Kate said sarcastically as she climbed to her feet.

"So, all this stuff needs to go to the dump," Claire told Kate, gesturing to her crappy couch and all the stuff that was piled on top of it. "And this stuff can get donated." She pointed to another, smaller pile.

"Right. And how do you suppose we do that? My car and yours can't fit a couch in the backseat." Kate pointed out.

"I know. It's already taken care of,"

"It is?"

"Yes, I already paid a few guys to do it. They'll be here in about an hour. Why do you look so surprised, Kate?" Claire asked.

"I guess you're serious."

"That's what I've been telling you all week," Claire told her, almost smug. "You--shit" she took her phone from her pocket, she flipped it open. "Yeah, Novak. What? But it's my day off. Aren't there any other Agents-- but-- (sigh) Yes, Director, I'll be there within forty minutes. Thank you,"

Kate watched as Claire closed her phone and could almost hear in as she gnashed her teeth. "Claire?"

"Shit," Claire said in answer.

"What was that?"

"I have to go back into work," Claire told her.

"But it's your day off," Kate protested.

"Yeah, well, the F.B.I. doesn't seem to care,"

"The F.B.I.?" Kate asked in confusion.

"Yeah, remember?" Claire made a come-on motion with her hand.

Kate just stared at her blankly.

"I used to work for Special Agent Tobias Fornell in the F.B.I. as an Forensic Officer, until I got pulled to NCIS five years ago." Claire explained.

"I didn't know this," Kate said, feeling rather hurt.

"Well, it was when you were in the Secret Service, and we kind of lost track of each other, didn't we?" Claire said with realization.

"So, who pulled you?" Kate asked.

"Well, Director Shepard, but ultimately it was my choice."

"Right. So why are they calling you now?"

"Well, sometimes, when they're under-staffed or because, well, you know..." Claire sent her a look. "I'm pretty good, I think. I would be head there if I wasn't at NCIS."

"So, you're not afraid to brag now?" Kate raised her brows, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Seriously?" Claire's hands were on her hips. "Which is better, FBI or NCIS? Hm? See,"

"Fine." Kate relented, "And you are good, you wouldn't be head of Evidence otherwise."

"Glad you see it my way,"

Kate shook her head. "You've been around DiNozzo too long."

"Hopefully longer,"

"He's going to spoil you," Kate warned.

"Then consider me spoiled," Claire smiled brightly at her. "Since I have to leave, can you take care of this?" she gestured around her apartment.

"Yeah, half an hour, right?" Kate clarified.

"Yep, couch equals garbage, other pile equals donations." Claire reminded. "Tony and Tim should by soon with all of Tony's stuff."

"So I'll se you later, then?" Kate asked.

Claire grabbed her sweater and slid her arms through the sleeves, and grabbed her keys. She had badge and ID with her, but her gun was at NCIS HQ, she had one of her spare kits in the trunk of her Neon Ford so that was fine, and she didn't need her weapon anyway, not where she was going. "Yeah, call me or I'll call you when I'm finished."

"See ya," Kate called as Claire shut the door behind her.

As Claire walked down her apartment stairs, she called Tony's cell.

" _Hey, babe."_ Tony  answered, sounding slightly out of breath. " _How's it going."_

"I've been called in to work," Claire told him.

" _What? But it's your day off!"_ he protested, just like Kate had, Claire smiled.

"I know, believe me, but I was ordered by the Director."

" _Why_?"

"It was a request by Fornell to cover an FBI scene." she explained.

" _Right, if Gibbs finds out, he'll be pissed_." Tony noted; remembering the relationship between Gibbs and Fornell. Fornell having remarried one of the Boss' exes; and even though Claire was not part of Gibbs' team, they worked with each other and he would be pissed that it was Fornell. Claire had told him that she had worked with the FBI  before coming to NCIS, and Tony would hate to see Claire be the rope in their tug-of-war game; NCIS v. FBI.

"Yes, well, he'll just have to deal with it, and anyway, I'm pissed too." Claire growled, jamming her car key into the door lock and turning it with more force than was necessary. "This is my day off, the one time that the whole team has off to help us with this moving thing, and I get called it. It sucks!" Claire climbed into her car and jerked her seatbelt around her waist.

" _It does_ ," Tony sighed. " _Sorry, Claire_."

Claire smiled as she put the key into the ignition and started her car. "That's sweet," she said as she pulled from her parking spot and onto the road.

" _Anyway, by the time you're done there, we'll be done here_." He assured her.

"I'll call when I'm done," Claire told him. "And tell Tim I said thanks for using his day off to help, and be nice."

" _Yes, mother_."

"Ugh, please, don't ever call me that." Claire said. "Because mother's don't have sex with their sons, so that means you won’t get any."

" _You may have went a little too far there, Novak. Withholding sex? That's a Federal Crime you know."_ she could hear his scowl and pout.

Claire chuckled. "It would only hurt the both of us."

" _Call me when you're done,"_

"I love you, DiNozzo."

" _You too, Novak."_

Claire hung up with a sigh, so much for a day off.

tbc!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A while has passed.  
> And some Tony/Claire smut.


	9. Where Art Thou?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire goes missing, and it's up to Gibbs' team (+ a distraught Tony) to find her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to Supernatural S.4 Ep.20: The Rapture
> 
> Many hours later.

"Yeah, Gibbs." Gibbs answered his cell as he wedged it between his ear and shoulder. It was around 8 p.m. and as was per usual on his days off, he was down in his basement working on his boat. He was searching for the right screw in his jar, but stopped when the voice on the other end finally decided to speak up.

" _Gibbs_ \--"

"Fornell," Gibbs growled.

" _Gibbs, now is not the time_."

"You're right. It's my day off so this must be important, so quit stalling."

" _There was a murder this morning in Winchester, an informant of the FBI's. We've been understaffed with the flu so I called Director Sheperd to see if she could lend me one of her CSIs. I requested the Agent that used to work for me, before NCIS stole her away."_

"Novak," Gibbs concluded, knowing of the Agent's prior work connections. "It was her day off, you know."

" _Yes, well, this needed to get done, Gibbs, and quick."_

"I'm waiting," Gibbs told him, though his famous gut was already telling him what had happened, and he knew that his team was not going to be very happy with the FBI, not that any of them were on a good day.

" _Not to long ago, I got a call to tell me that all my Agents there were knocked out with gas. Novak is missing_ ,"

"You've just made a bunch of enemies, Tobias." Gibbs growled, setting down his jar of screws and already on the move. "You better be there when I get there." And he snapped the phone shut, only to open it again and dial Kate's number.

" _Todd_ ," Kate sighed.

"You still with DiNozzo and McGee?"

" _Yeah. We got a case, didn't we, Gibbs_?"

"Get here quick," was all Gibbs said before he hung up, already dressed and in his truck.

Gibbs already knew that Fornell was in the Director's office when he got to the bullpen, it was a few minutes later when Kate, Tony and Tim came in the elevator.

"This sucks," Tony commented. "First Claire and now us; isn't it supposed to be our day off, Boss?"

"I was sure that there are other NCIS teams in this building," Kate grumped.

"In the Director's office," Gibbs ordered, "Now."

Tony looked about to open his mouth to, well, mouth off, but Tim was the one who actually elbowed him in the side to shut him up. Tony glared, and Gibbs gave him a light tap on the head. Tony flinched, but that was it. And they headed up the stairs to Shepard's office. The instant the three of them stepped into the office and saw Fornell, the air zapped with electricity. They were all alert with a speed that made Gibbs proud, despite the situation.

"This can't be good," Tim muttered under his breath to the two Agents at his side.

"And it isn't, Agent McGee." Shepard said, causing the younger Agent to start.

"Fornell, why don't you fill them in." Gibbs said, his voice hard. His team looked at him.

Fornell cleared his throat, and three sets of glares focused on him. "Noon this morning in Winchester, an FBI informant was found murdered. The Agents at the scene were gassed..."

"Just tell them, Tobias." Gibbs growled.

Kate shook her head rapidly. "That was the scene that Claire was called to, wasn't it?" she said.

Tony was frozen. "What?" his voice was barely audible.

"Agent Novak is missing," Director Shepard informed the team.

Gibbs should have seen this coming, but Tony had never been in this kind of situation before, so Gibbs actually wasn't sure how his Agent would react to the news, and apparently, neither did anyone else in the room except for Tony.

He had frozen, for just an instant, as this information stabbed home, harshly and roughly. His girlfriend of 8 months, his love, the woman who he had just moved in with, was missing, and the man in front of him was responsible. He could have sworn that he saw red, his mind clicked off. Tony leapt around his friends and Gibbs, and dove across the table in order to get to Fornell. And there was no way that Fornell saw this coming.

"Tony!" Kate shouted, but stayed were she was with a hand on Tim's arm, keeping them both in place. Even though Tim would never admit it, just like her, whatever Fornelll got, he deserved.

Tony grabbed the lapels of Fornell's coat. "You have no idea what you've just done!" his fist was up and ready. He didn't care that this was an FBI Agent, or that it was in front of the Director, Claire was missing and Fornell was at fault; this was supposed to be their day off.

"Agent DiNozzo!" Shepard barked.

But it was Gibbs' sharp growl that pierced his back, "DiNozzo. If you go through with this, you're off this case and I'll send you packing."

Tony's body practically quivered with the effort that it took not to follow through with the punch, as much as he wanted to, he needed to be on this case, he needed to find his Claire. "If anything happens to Claire, Fornell, anything that I say will not even compare to what I will do to you." He let go of Fornell's coat, his breath coming out harshly as he leaned back against the table’s edge and looked at Fornell, his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze colder than even Gibbs'.

Fornell cleared his throat and straightened his coat.

"Go ahead, Agent Fornell." Shepard finally said from behind her desk.

"The FBI had been following Jamie Moralto, he's the lead in a gun smuggling operation from Canada. Not to long ago we've turned one of the low key guys into a informant to the FBI; Derek Barnes. Recently, he'd been moving up the ranks. He turned up dead this morning in Winchester, zippered." Fornell told them.

"What's zippered?" Tim asked.

"It's where they cut the body in half at the waist high using an automatic weapon with a big calibre, McGee." Tony explained, his tone cold, but not towards Tim. "I saw it once in Baltimore, it was mob related. It's usually used for body disposal, but if it's done just right, the victim can last up to half an hour before they bleed out. It's not pretty,"

"So, you think that Moralto found out, killed Barnes and then took Agent Novak as a warning?" Kate asked.

"Maybe," Fornell said. "But I've been on Moralto for a while now, and if he wanted to warn the FBI, then those Agents would have been killed."

"So, personal then." Shepard concluded.

"Claire doesn't have any enemies," Kate told them.

"Everyone had enemies, Agent Todd." Shepard said. "Get it done, Jethro." she said pointedly, "I want my Agent back."

"Go," Gibbs barked and Kate and Tim went into instant action, leaving the Director's office and down to the bullpen, Tony was more slower.

"I'm not liking this, Gibbs." Tony muttered as he passed his boss.

Gibbs grabbed his upper arm and stopped him. "You don't have to like it, DiNozzo. Now get it done," he let go of Tony's arm with a sigh, and the Senior Agent followed after his team. Gibbs turned to Shepard and Fornell, his arms crossed over his chest, his blue gaze hard, his body language screaming _pissed!_ "We need to  have a chat,"

…

"I don't like this," Kate said to Tony in the bullpen. "It's not right."

"You're right," Tony told her and Tim. "But Claire is missing a-and she's in danger, and if this is going to save her, then we do it. We're not going to look at her different," he whispered.

"Tony," Tim's voice was soft.

Tony shook his head. "This is no time for feelings," he straightened his shoulders. "McGee, you look into Claire's history, I want everything you find, especially anything that stands out. Kate, we'll look into Moralto, check out Fornell's theory."

Kate and Tim nodded, going to their desks, they had to get their friend back. Tony stayed where he was, in the middle of the bullpen. His shaded blue eyes were blank as he stared at the carpet. 

Gibbs watched his Senior Agent from upstairs, looking helpless. He had been that way once before, when he found out Shannon was dead. She was his first love. Gibbs knew, in his gut, that Claire was still alive. But he also knew that even though Tony had had too many one night stands to bother counting, he had never fallen in love with them like he had with Claire. And with their job, and the tie in with the FBI, it made things that much worse, but better at the same time, because they were Agents and they had the resources. Gibbs was pissed about this, at Jenny and Tobias; though Claire was not on his team, she was an extension. She's known Kate since high school, Abby since she'd first transferred over from the FBI, Ducky from the crime scenes they'd done together, Tim since his promotion from Norfolk, Jenny was the one that made her the offer, and now Claire and Tony were in a committed relationship; so by extension Novak was his Agent. And he was pissed that she was missing.

…

"Tell me what you have," Gibbs said, finally in the bullpen, his arms crossed as stood in the middle at the big screen between his two Agents desks.

There was silence. Gibbs knew that this was different than just any missing persons case, it always was when you knew the person. So, instead of barking, Gibbs waited. He knew that Tim and Kate were waiting for Tony, he was their Senior Agent and above that, Claire was his girlfriend. But Tony was silent, sitting behind his desk, his arms on the top, his gaze fixed blankly on his computer screen.

"Uh," Gibbs turned his gaze to Kate, who stood next to him. "I checked with Agent Fornell's theory, and it seemed to fit. From what I can tell, Moralto _would_ have come in with guns hot. Barnes was the warning, not Claire."

At her name, Tony's gaze snapped to Kate, but he didn't say anything.

"Okay," Gibbs nodded. "DiNozzo, head in the game." Tony mumbled something that must have been along the lines of _yes, boss._ "Tim," he turned to his youngest Agent.

"Um," Tim was very nervous. "From-from the beginning, boss?" he asked with hesitation, his gaze shooting to Tony.

Gibbs nostrils flared, he tried playing nice, but that wasn't working. "DiNozzo," he growled, going over to Tony's desk, _slap!_ Tony looked up at him with startled eyes. "I'm sending you home,"

"No!" Tony protested, up from his chair.

"Then get off your ass, and pay attention." Gibbs ordered, and Tony snapped to, next to Kate. Gibbs turned to Tim. "From the _top_ , McGee."

"Right, boss." Tim stood from his desk and with a last look at Tony, turned to the big screen with the remote in hand. He clicked it, and Claire's photo ID appeared on the screen. "Claire Novak, born August 3rd, 1976, Pontiac, Illinois." He clicked again, and two other pictures appeared, "The only child of Amelia Novak, surname Donovan, and Jimmy Novak; she was a stay at home mom, and he sold radio ad time. There is no record of a divorce, but Jimmy left when Claire was 12, a year later there are reports that he came back, that same night two neighbours were reported murdered in the Novak home. Their only suspect was Jimmy and two unidentified subjects, but he's been off the grid since. Claire went to therapy for a year, and her mother was diagnosed with depression. Claire and her mother moved in with her mother's parents, and when she turned 17, Claire left home and went to college in Pennsylvania. She graduated with Honours and a Bachelor's Degree in forensics." He clicked and a bunch of certificates shot up onto the screen. "She joined the Police Academy and studied as a CSI, out of the Academy, she was recruited by the Washington FBI. She was well on her way to being bumped up to be the Head of her Department, five years ago, she got an offer to work for NCIS, and took it. Currently, she'd the Head down in Evidence." Tim finished with a breath.

"Thoughts," Gibbs said.

"Claire doesn't have any flags in her history or her file, all the cases that she's worked here and at the FBI, were never her as a Field Agent, she'd just dealt with the evidence." Tim spoke.

"Then that leaves her father," Kate sighed, knowing that that was a sour subject with Claire. She knew that her friend's father left, but never knew that he left an impression like that. "It's the only blip."

"Okay," Gibbs nodded. "We need to talk to her mother, get me a location on her, McGee." he said.

Tim winced at that. "I already did that,"

"And? McGee,"

Tim took a breath through his nose, but Kate spoke up. "Claire's mother isn't going to be any help, she's not dead, but that doesn't matter. The reason why Claire and her mother moved in with her grandparents, was because of Amelia's mental health. The depression was only the start," she told them reluctantly, know that this was an equally upsetting subject with Claire, one that she didn't speak of more than her father leaving. "The pills didn't seem to work, they got her checked out, nothing seemed wrong. Amelia's parents urged her to see a psychiatrist. She had a mental break down, spouting things about Angels and Demons and possession. She was committed to an institute,"

"So, why suddenly Religion?" Gibbs questioned.

"Claire's family, or, her father, was a very committed Christian. So was Claire, it was what she grew up into." Kate shrugged her shoulders. "She told me once, when we were in college, that-that before her father left, like a month before, he and her mother were fighting. Jimmy said that a-an Angel was talking to him, like, telling him he was being chosen, or something. I don't know, Claire was only twelve at the time. But, her mother wanted him to go see someone and to take pills or she would take Claire away. It was two days after that, that Jimmy left. It was in the middle of the night, and Claire heard him leave. She went after him, and he told that her that he wasn't her father anymore." She shook her head.

"McGee," Gibbs turned to his Agent. "I want everything and anything you have on Jimmy Novak, find him."

"Right," McGee said softly. "The father it is." He clicked the remote, and Jimmy Novak's picture filled the screen, before he went back to his computer. He didn't like doing this, looking into his friend's past like that, it felt like a total invasion of privacy. But Tony was right, even if it felt totally wrong, if it helped get Claire back alive, it would be worth the guilt.

"Kate," Gibbs turned to her. "I want to get a hold of that homicide file."

She nodded and went to her phone.

Tony sighed, heavy and heartfelt, broken and guilty. It was bad enough that Claire was missing and her status unknown, but to dig through her past like this? It made it worst. He now knew things about his girlfriend that he didn't know, and maybe even things that she would never tell him, or not until they were married. Hah, that was a thought. Tony DiNozzo, married, but with Claire, anything seemed possible. But in order for that to happen, he needed to have Claire. He looked at the picture on the big screen; Claire's father. The two of them looked more alike than Claire and her mother, they had the exact same eyes; big, deep, dark pools of aqua like a marina, they held the gleam of belief that there was something more bigger and powerful out there. Tony couldn't believe that such a religious man like Jimmy could do something harmful to Claire, but then again, how could he say that he wasn't Claire's father? God, Tony missed her so much, today was supposed to be a happy day, but now it was crap.

"Tony..." Gibbs said, in a sympathetic tone.

" _What the hell is that_!"

"Claire?" Tony's voiced in confusion as he spun around to her.

tbc!

 

 


	10. A Blast From the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire gets a visit from the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few hours earlier.  
> And some surprise guests!

_Claire was pissed when she got into her car, and was still pissed when she got out of the car in Winchester. She shoved it down, though, as she grabbed her kit from the trunk of her Neon, and flashed her badge to the uniform at the tap e. He gave her a confused look, and it didn't help improve her mood._

_"Yes, I realize that this isn't a dead marine," Claire told him, trying very hard not to roll her eyes. "I'm a loan for Agent Fornell. If you want, I can call him and you can get yelled at."_

_"No. It's fine, ma‘am. " He lifted the tape and she went under._

_There were four uniforms there, two FBI suits and the coroner and his assistant who were already at the body. That left only her to process the scene, what a great day off. She snapped on some gloves and got her camera out, going to the body first so that the coroner could take it away. She took pictures. The guy was definitely dead, and it definitely had to be gang or mob related; the guy was cut in half, and from the casings around the body, it wasn't by an axe or anything. When they took the body away, she did a sketch of the scene, then took pictures of all of the shells before bagging them. There was more than fifty and they each got there own little baggie. She swabbed the blood and went from there; doing the work of a team, all on her own. She took pictures of everything, bagged and sealed, took swabs, dusted, collected. It took her at least three hours to comb through the whole place, while being thorough. She sighed everything and dated everything, before she handed it all off to the two suits, they signed to keep the chain of custody in tact._

_"I'll have my report to Fornell sometime tomorrow." Claire told the pair. And then she was finished, and she was relieved. She climbed into her car after putting her kit in the backseat, and was ready to call Kate and then Tony, to tell them she was done and on her way back, but she was getting no signal. "Dam nit!" she cursed and chucked her phone onto the passenger seat. Why the hell was this happening? She sighed and put the key in the ignition as she drew her seatbelt. But she stopped when she heard a couple of thuds outside and when she looked in her rear-view mirror to see the uniforms on the ground and the suits knocked out in their car. "What--"_

_Claire heard the rumble of an engine and it wasn't hers. She was no longer in the driver's seat of her car, and instead in the back of another. She had no idea what was happening or how it even happened; the fact that she was no longer at the crime scene and in her own car, but her instincts kicked in and she reached for her SIG on her hip. It wasn't there, she didn't have it at her apartment, it was still at HQ and she didn't have her back-up either. Bad-- this was bad._

_"What the hell; who are you and what do you want?" Claire demanded. It was dark in the car, and it was plain highway back and forth, no streetlights anywhere._

_"We need to talk," said the guy that was driving and Claire could have sworn she'd heard that voice before, way to long ago to properly recognize. "I know you're freaking right now, I did the first few times too, but we're not here to hurt you, Claire."_

_"W-- How do you know my name?"_

_"We met once before," the guy said, he was young, probably a little older than Tony. "When you were thirteen."_

_Claire tried to think back, that was when her father left her._

_"I know your--"_

_"Claire," a gravely voice spoke up next to her, and she jumped to the other side of the backseat with what could almost be considered a scream._

_"Nearly did that myself the first time, too." The driver commented dryly. "Little warning next time,"_

_"Sorry, Dean." The voice next to her said, and she knew that name from somewhere._

_Claire looked to the guy next to her, and even though it was hard to see in here, she knew that silhouette  anywhere. "Dad?" she said in disbelief. It got her every time._

"I am not your father,"

 _And then it clicked, and it felt like her heart broke all over again. When she was twelve, her father was spoken to by an Angel and that Angel took her father away from her. "Castiel," she sneered the name. That's right. It was unbelievable, but then again, it didn't seem real to her either. She thought that her father had just left her, but when he looked at her that night, it wasn't her father that spoke, but someone, something else. And when she was thirteen and Jimmy came back, he came back with Demons on his heels. Castiel had taken her for only but ten minutes, until he retook her father. Yeah, she thought she was crazy, her mother_ actually _went crazy. But Claire hadn't forced her to forget, but instead, Castiel made her forget. But apparently with his reappearance, they came back. "What the hell do you want?" she demanded._

_"We need your help," Dean said._

_"With what?"_

_"There has been a few marines dead, they were scattered deaths, but they all had a few things in common. One, was a tattoo on their chest. Remember them?"_

_"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?"_

_"They're a protection symbol that wards any Demon possession," he explained._

_And Claire now remembered why it had seemed familiar to her, only she couldn't dig up the forgotten memory._

_"All Hunters have them, it's good for the soul." He punned._

_"And..."_

_"They're being haunted by their pasts, and killed."_

_"So, what do you want?"_

_"We need to commandeer their bodies."_

_"What!"_

_"They need to be burned in a ritual, there's this thing going around, a virus. It reanimates them in certain conditions, almost like a zombie, but worse. It needs to be done before a certain period of time,"_

_"You have an Angel, can't he find them for you?"_

_"All Hunters have Angel proofing now and Cas has sorta been expelled--"_

_"I don't even want to know," Claire shook her head. "I'll tell you, and then you kill the thing and leave me the hell alone." She growled._

_"It's a deal." Dean agreed._

_Claire looked at Castiel for a second, but could do no more than that. She was just reminded of her father, the one that was taken away from her. "O'Brian, Ranjer, Quade and Jordon are all buried in different places, and as far as I know, none have been cremated..."_

_"Thanks, Claire." Dean said, and it sounded true._

_"It's fine, just, please don't bother me again." Claire asked. "I have a life that is nowhere near this, I have a boyfriend and a trouble free job. Don't screw that up,"_

_"We'll try... Cas."_

_Claire looked and found Cas reaching out to her._

_"We might have caused a little trouble when we took you though," Dean sighed, she could hear the wince in his voice._

And then she wasn't there anymore, but instead back in her car, but not at the crime scene and instead in her parking space at NCIS. Claire didn't even want to know, but she knew that Dean was right, there was some trouble ahead. She wanted to forget it, well, at least she forgot her phone in her car and she went up the elevator, planning on going to see the Director, trying to come up with a cover of what might lie ahead, but instead got off at the bullpen. She rounded the corner and stopped dead.

Gibbs' team was gathered around the big screen, but she could see between them and saw what there were looking at, a picture of her dad. Jimmy, not Castiel.

"What the hell is that?!" Claire demanded to know.

The team all shot around to look at her, shock on there faces. "Claire?" Tony's voice was faint, unbelieved.

"Yeah, it's me. Now what the hell is that, Tony?" Claire repeated.

"Claire..." his voice was exactly the same.

"Kate?" Claire turned to her friend, hoping she would be able to string more than her name together.

"Uh," apparently not, and Claire knew that she was never going to get anything out of Tim.

"Agent Gibbs?" Claire turned her stare to him, her arms crossed over her chest.

"The Agents at crime scene that you processed were gassed, when they woke up, you were missing, but your car was still at the scene, your cell in the passenger seat. You've been UA for four hours," Gibbs told her.

"You can't be serious!" So there must be memory loss with Cas' knockout, this was going to be fun to explain. Claire skewered her mind; think, think! Got it, "My cell didn't have a signal, and yes, I believe that I could have asked one of the FBI Agents for their cell, but then again, the world isn't ending. I could have waited until I got back to the apartment, but I promised that I would call when I was finished. So I went to a payphone in the park, no one answered their phone, I got preoccupied, lost, pissed, then even more pissed that when I finally got back to the crime scene, my goddamned car wasn't there. I had to walk. Couldn't find a bus, didn't enough cash for a cab, got here by hitchhiking, thank you very much."

"Mm-hm," Gibbs nodded.

"What? You don't believe me, Gibbs?"

"Didn't say that."

"Fine. Tony?" Claire took his hand. "I'm fine, okay."

Tony nodded, squeezing her hand. "Claire,"

"Yeah, Tony."

"I love you, and I'm glad that you weren't kidnapped and tortured."

"Heh, I am too, Tony. Now, I have to talk to the Director, but I'll come back, okay?" Tony nodded and Claire gave him a quick kiss before she headed of the stairs.

"It's okay, Tony." Kate patted his shoulder, "She's okay."

"Yeah..."

tbc!

 


	11. Interrrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gibbs wants some answers and Claire is pissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Presently.

"Is this really necessary, Agent Gibbs?" Claire asked at the interrogation table.

"Just want to clear a few things up," Gibbs said, sitting across from her.

"In the interrogation room?"

"Interview room,"

"And I'm the president!" Gibbs just stared at her. "Fine, ask away." The sudden reappearance of her past had really caused a lot of trouble; this was supposed to be her day off, to be with Tony and their friends, and for the two of them to move in together like a normal couple. But of course, it couldn't be that simple, her past could never be simple.

"Tell me about the scene of the crime."

"Arrived at the scene just before one o'clock; present were two squad cars with four uniformed officers, and one sedan with two FBI Agents; I was the only Forensic Offiver. I sketched the scene, took photos of the body before it was taken away. Collected over thirty bullet casings, dug the bullets out of the ground, swabbed the blood. I went over the scene twice; took casting of any marks in the dirt, and any footprints that I found, measured and photographed. Every piece of garbage or anything that didn't immediately belonging the area. After I was finished, I handed all of my collection to the two FBI Agents." 

"The surrounding area,"

"It was clear, there was only the six officers. It's an FBI thing, they stop anyone from getting even remotely close to the tape. I saw no one suspicious,"

"After you finished processing the scene,"

Claire sighed, this was where she had to be specific, but not too specific. She was lying here, so she had to pay attention, mix the lie in with the truth. "I got into my car, my phone was getting no bars. I looked for a payphone instead of asking, or even driving to one. I was angry, this was supposed to be my day off and I get called in, and not even to my actually job, but to do my old one." Claire took a breath through her nose, long and hard; remembering why she was pissed. She continued, "I find a payphone, called everyone, but apparently in was ignore Claire day, and no one picked up. I got sidetracked for a while after that, and then when I went back to the crime scene, my car was gone, and so was everyone else."

"And what sidetracked you, Novak?"

Claire let out single bark of laughter, before her expression settled on contempt. "There was this woman, she said she took her eyes off her daughter for a second, and I helped her."

"Does this woman have a name?"

"I'm sure that she does,"

"You didn't ask?"

"No,"

"Why?"

"Why did I have to? It's not a crime not to ask for someone's name, Gibbs." Claire pushed out from her chair, and went for the door.

Gibbs' gaze followed her. "Where are you going?"

Claire opened the door. "It's my day off, Gibbs, I'm going to go home, with Tony."

"Do mental breakdowns run in the family?"

"What!" Claire demanded, spinning around. "I get that with our job, a missing Agent isn't something to be ignored; if it happened to Tony, Kate or Tim, I would be in everyone's ass. But it's different when it's you, isn't it? When you're friends take apart everything you are, find out things that you were never going to tell, or didn't have the chance to, it's all out in the open. There's no going back, there's no denying anything. How you would you feel, Gibbs? If you team knew things about you that you won't even admit to yourself." She looked straight at him, still, waiting for an answer.

Gibbs stared back, unblinking and unmoving as ever. "When's the last time you saw your mother, Claire?"

Claire's hands slapped down on the table top loudly, and she leaned forward to Gibbs. "I want to hurt you do bad, I don't care if it ends my career; you never talk about my mother, never." She hissed. "And I'm smart enough to realize that you thought that my father came after me, it's the obvious way to go, but never disrespect my father like that."

"Are you aware of your father's whereabouts?"

"No," Claire told him, her eyes narrowed. "I don't know where my father is, but what I do know, is that wherever he is, his changing the world in god's name." She paused. "He raised me right, to respect people, but I'm finding it rather difficult at the moment."

"You're father abandoned you, Claire." Gibbs said, not budging. "He didn't raise you,"

"My father was chosen by the Angels, and he's with me every second of everyday." She swallowed harshly. "You don't know my father, or our relationship."

"Your connection, it sounds to me that you haven't lost contact."

"It doesn't matter where my father is; here in America, or on the other side of the Earth, we're father and daughter, we're blood, we're connected by god and by spirit-- no distance breaks that, no amount of time and separation. Gibbs," Claire smiled. "You can take what you will from this _interview_ , it doesn't matter. I care for my mother, love my father, Kate... Tony. Nothing you say, will change that." She stood up, "I will have my statement on the matter in for you when I come into work tomorrow, and I will have my report in on the Barnes' case into to Fornell then too." She turned and left.

Gibbs sat there for a minute. Claire was a good Agent, great at her job and he knew there was nothing wrong with her head. People deal differently with the abandonment of a loved one, that was how her mother dealt with it. Claire, dealt with it differently; believing that her father was always with her, no matter what. What Gibbs couldn't get, though, was how a father could leave his wife and child, even in the name of God and Angels. He would like to say that he would never do that to Shannon and Kelly, but he had, not in the name of God, but for his country, and he wasn't there to protect them when they needed it most.

…

Claire never once let go of Tony's hand on their way back to the apartment, _their_ apartment, and Tony didn't either. It was late and they went to bed, never letting go. They didn't have sex, and instead Claire curled up against his side, Tony's arm around her, holding her close.

Tony's mind wasn’t a loud buzz, but a dull roar. There were a lot of things that he didn't know about Claire, or at least, that used to be true. Now he knew everything, all of her family secrets, all of her dirty laundry. He wasn't going to talk about it though, force her. He wanted her to tell him on her own, on her own terms. He loved Claire, and he didn't want something like this to wreck that; he was the happiest he had ever been.

tbc!

 


	12. Coward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire tries to make a choice, and Gibbs gives her a push.

"Tony..." Claire sighed, trailing off and swallowing hard. "Tony-- _Dam nit_!" she cursed, putting her face in her hands.

It had been a week since her ‘ _kidnapping ‘,_ (she had _actually_ been kidnapped, by her not-father and the Hunter, but no one else knew about them but her), and the invasion into her personal history. She was flattered that her friends were right on her case when they thought that she had gone missing, she wasn't mad about that or at them, she loved them all in different ways. She was angry with herself, at her past, and for what it was. She knew that not everyone’s past was simple, like her father leaving because he was having an affair instead of giving up his body to an Angel. Kate was the only one who knew about her mother and that her father left in the name of God; she hadn't told Tony yet, but now he knew anyway, everyone knew anyway. The way she was now, you wouldn't think that that was what her past was like. It was like they were walking on egg shells around her, like she did with her mother, Claire had to because any slip would cause an episode. But Claire was not her mother and there wasn't egg shells around her. She could even see the guilt on Kate, who already knew about her past, except for the supernatural aspect. Tim was stuttering around her again, like when they first met each other; he was nervous and overly guilty. Tony was quiet, too quiet, so unlike him.

Claire couldn't take it anymore; knew that he looked at her differently. And that was why she was in her office, back to the door, trying find a way to say. "Tony... I think... I mean... we're great together..." she felt tears prick her eyes. "I love you... but I can't... I can't take it anymore. I'm not mad at you... Tony... God, I love you... Why... Tony... Tony..." She sucked in a tattered breath, a tear or two escaped her aqua pools. "I-I think we should break-break up... Tone..."

Claire heard her door knob jiggle and hastily wiped the tears form her pale face. "Damnit, Connors! I told you to disturb me unless the evidence locker was on fire, and how many times do I have to tell you to knock?"

"Not very many say no to me," Gibbs said behind her, closing the door behind him.

Claire gritted her teeth, her back still to him. "Agent Gibbs... how nice of you to drop by-- unannounced." She deadpanned.

"I announced myself to your Agent,"

"And in a stammer I'm sure that he informed you that I was not to be disturbed,"

"He did,"

"And yet, here you are... all without knocking, either."

"Yup,"

"I'm busy, Gibbs." Claire told him, her fingers tapping in her desk top.

"Cleary,"

" _Clearly,_ yes."

"Making plans to ditch my Agent?" he stated rhetorically.

Claire spun around in her chair to face him; her eyes ever-so slightly puffy. "What do you want, Gibbs?"

"How well do you think he'll take it?"

"How well do you think you'll take it?" Claire countered.

"Hm." Gibbs chuckled lightly. "That's a good one,"

"Thanks," she said dryly.

"So, after," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, "How did you plan on dealing with it, Novak?"

Claire didn't say a word.

"He gave up his apartment, you work together--"

"I'm going back to the FBI!" Claire cut him off with a growl.

Now Gibbs really did laugh.

"You think that's funny?" she demanded.

"I do," he nodded.

Claire stood up and glared at him. "Do you know why people hate the FBI?" she asked and Gibbs raised a brow at her. "They're very secretive; you could slice the balls off the Agent with a butter knife and you still wouldn't get anything." She stabbed her finger at her desk. "Even the people who work in the FBI, hate the FBI. You don't have friends, or teams, or partners; everyone is a threat and everyone is suspicious of everyone, trying to move up the ladder. I hated it there, I'll admit, that wasn't the kind of career I wanted, full of back-stabbing. So when Agent Fornell grudgingly informed me of the offer from the Director of NCIS, I took it. Made friends with Abby, Ducky was easy to be around, then Kate came and it got even better, it was easy to be friends with Tim when he came over from Norfolk." She paused. "And then ten months ago, I met Tony. Heh," she couldn't help the smile. But then she shook her head and looked back at Gibbs. "All around me, are egg shells, Gibbs. I am not my mother, as much as you implied that a week ago."

Gibb waited a moment before he said, "You finished?"

"Apparently."

"Good. Now, quit being a complete idiot, Novak." He said.

"Really? That's what you're going to go with."

"I'm not finished." he growled. "Courting someone isn't all fun and games; there's serious things involved too. And if you even cared an ounce about Tony, then you won't run away like a coward." Gibbs gave her The Stare.

"Have I told you yet, that hate you?"

"Once, last week."

"Just... Leave me alone, Gibbs." Claire sighed in defeat, slumping back into her chair.

"Get it done... Claire." Gibbs told her softly, then left.

Claire shook her head. She was in a depression, and didn't want to end up like her mother. She loved Tony, so what was the problem? She would have eventually told him about her mother and father, excluding the supernatural mess, of course. But the end was the same, and despite all odds, Gibbs was right about relationships; it wasn't all just fun and games. And she knew that if she did try and break it off with Tony, she would never be able to function the same again and neither would he. She couldn't do that, she loved him too much, him knowing what he did, didn't change that.

tbc!

 


	13. It Doesn't Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire takes Gibbs' advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Later that night.

Claire sighed. Again. She couldn't help it; it wasn't because she bored, but was because she was frustrated with herself, that it had taken Gibbs— _Gibbs_ for her to commit to this. She hated herself because she was going to ruin the good and amazing thing that she had with Tony because she was  embarrassed about her dysfunctional past. She never had before, but then again, it wasn't like she blurted it out to random strangers, and it wasn’t as if people went searching for it either.

She had only one scene to process today, and she thanked a lot of things that it wasn't the case that Gibbs' team had. It didn't take that long to gather any and all evidence because she had her Senior Agent with her, Peter Connors. She'd written her report, handed it in and drove home. 

She'd paced the apartment for a while, sure that her neighbours downstairs were getting pissed, but eventually she stopped because the movement didn't come to anything beside making her sweaty and more irritable, of course, being on her period didn't help her mood either. Especially now, when she was trying to figure out a way to tell Tony what he already knew. So she sat in their living room, in the dark. It probably wasn't very encouraging, but then again, she wasn't very encouraged either. Sure, Gibbs could spout a few words, ones that she was already aware of, and send her on her way, but there was still the fact of actually going through with it. She would, obviously, she loved Tony, but that didn't make this any easier. Her mind held nothing, just as the darkness.

…

When Tony finally came home, it was to a dark apartment. In his experience that was never a good thing. "Claire?" he called. He knew that she had to be here, she wasn’t at HQ, and she didn't leave a message saying she'd been anywhere else. He flicked the kitchen light on and found Claire illuminated in the living room, sitting on the couch, the one that was brought from his apartment. "Should I be concerned?" he asked, with humour as he went and sat next to Claire on the couch, "You didn't get bit on the way home, and'll die if you don't stay in the dark, will you?"

"Tony..." Claire voiced, and it may have been in the same tone that Gibbs had walked in on. It wasn't meant to be and she hoped that Tony didn't think she was going to do something really stupid.

"I know that you're angry at us, Claire." Tony started before she could continue.

But Claire did the same to him right back as she turned on the couch to face him. "I'm not angry at you guys," she protested. "I'm embarrassed." She admitted.

"You have nothing--"

Claire scoffed, "I have everything to be embarrassed about, Tony!"

"We all--"

"When Gibbs did the follow-up, do you know what he asked about?" she didn't wait, "My mental health. Because my father left 'cause of his beliefs, and my mother couldn't cope. So what does that say about me?"

"Claire--" Tony tried, a hand on her knee.

But Claire was on a roll now, she'd already started and wasn't going to stop until it was all out there, again. "My mother made me go to therapy, everyone thinks that my father killed our neighbours. My father isn't a murderer and he isn't a liar, he's a man of God; more of a Priest than most." She paused long enough for breath. "Sure, I may have done a few questionable things in college, but that shouldn't reflect on me now."

"Questionable things?" Tony asked, "Like-like what?" his fingers trailed up her thigh from her knee, because he was a man after all, and words like that sent his mind to places like this.

Claire looked down at his hand, and despite the complex conversation she was trying to have, couldn't help the twitch of her lips. "Tony,"

Tony shook his head. "Sorry," but he didn't move his hand. "We haven't had sex in a week."

"I am aware, believe me." She deadpanned.

"Right. Look," he told her, her latest comment on the back burner for now. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have things in our past that we don't blurt out to everyone, but they are what made us who we are today. My mother was an alcoholic and died when I was eight. My father was a neglectful bastard, he once left me alone in a hotel room for two days when I was ten. My whole childhood was spent in boarding schools and summer camps; the only time my father paid any attention to me was when he did his war re-enactments and made me carry the shit bucket."

"Shit, Tony." Claire breathed, looking at him.

"See? Every childhood has its issues," Tony told her. "And think of it this way," his other hand cupped her cheek. "If none of those things happened, we wouldn't be here, together, today." He leaned forward and kissed the corner of her mouth. "I love you, Claire. And nothing from your past could ever change our future together."

Claire didn't think that that would be true if Tony ever found out the real-real truth, but right now, it was true. And no matter what happened, she did want the two of them to last. "You're so sweet, Tony. Even if you try and hide it."

"You flatter me." He smirked. "But if you tell anyone..."

"What? You gonna withhold sex, DiNozzo?" she challenged.

"No," Tony told her, both of his hands on her hips. "I'll give you sex, it just won't be that good." He yanked her hips so that she was now lying flat on the couch, and she let out a yelp of surprise.

"I don't mean to boost your ego here," she told him, "But I don't think that your genes allow you to do sex bad."

"Well, Novak, I'd usually take that as a challenge, but I don't think that I want that win under my belt." Tony told her, laying over top of her.

"You sound confident,"

"I am,"

"Then prove it," Claire told him, reaching up and pulling his head down until their lips met.

tbc!

 


	14. Love Lost, Love Won - Part 1of 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony opens a letter and Claire calls in some supernatural reinforcements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Swak. Multiple spoilers, as well as lines taken from episode.

Tony groaned. "What're you doing?" he mumbled, his eyes still closed as Claire was bouncing around on the other side of the bed.

"I have to go," she told him, her side of the bed still jumping.

"Work?" he asked, groggily. "I didn't hear your phone."

Claire smirked. "It's on vibrate,"

"I didn't feel it,"

Claire paused and looked over her shoulder at Tony. "I did."

Tony's eyes cracked at that, a smirk playing across his lips. "And I would love to feel you," he reached across the bed and pulled her back onto him. Claire already had on a long sleeve, and a pair of jeans, she'd just finished with her socks.

"It's five in the morning, Tony." she laughed, rolling onto her side, her elbow next to his ribs and her other hand next to his head on the pillow.

"It can wait," he told her, glancing at her lips.

Claire giggled and shook her head, but ducked it so she caught his lips. "That's all you're gonna get," she told him and pushed off. He tried to pull her back, but she had the advantage of being awake for twenty minutes. "I have to go meet Kate, before I go to HQ."

Tony rolled over with a grunt. "I wanna ask..."

"But you're not going to," she stood from the bed and turned to him.

"Just a quick-y," he told her.

"Tony!"

"Come on," he pouted. "Do you're boyfriend a solid."

"You serious right now? Because of the hour, I'm going to put that comment on you morning visitor." Claire said. "But because you actually said that to me, you can take car of it yourself." She left their bedroom.

"Fine. But I'll be thinking about you the whole time!" he called to her.

"You better!" she yelled back.

Fantasy was the next best thing.

…

"Wow," Tony voiced when he came out of the elevator and saw the condition that Kate was in. "What'd you do all night, sake-bombing?"

Kate looked at him as they walked to the bullpen, blowing her nose. "It's a cold, Tony." She looked at him, "Sake-bombing?"

"Is that why Claire came over, what did you do?" he asked her, and she looked at him in disgust. "Oh, come on, Kate. We're both adults here,"

"Two of us," she agreed, glancing at Tim.

Tony chucked his bag behind his desk, but fOllowed Kate to hers. "You can't tell me you don't know what sake-bombing is."

Kate stopped at her desk, wiping her nose. "I think I just did. Forget it," she shook her head. "I don't want to know." She went behind her desk.

But Tony went on to explain it anyway. Kate was the reason why he didn't get any this morning, and he was going to make her pay. "You take a cup of hot sake, you drop it in a beer, you toss it back and _ka-boosh!"_ he mimed for her.

"Sake-bombing," Kate winced and smiled, nodding along, just so he would leave her alone.

"Great for a cold," Tony agreed.

It was bad enough that she had a cold and had to come into work, and then Claire and remedies that she was never going to take because they were gross back in high school and they were still gross now. "I'll stick to honey and hot tea," she told him, "thanks."

"McGee," Tony turned to the Probie, who's hands were full of mail. "Kate's never been sake-bombing."

"Yeah," Tim nodded as he placed a few letters on Gibbs' desk. "I don't think I have either."

Tony sighed. "I work with a pair of wankers," he noted.

"And you make three, DiNozzo." Gibbs walked passed his Senior Agent, coffee in hand to his desk.

"Morning, boss." Tony shot out, glad that he didn't get smacked this early in the morning.

"Morning," Kate greeted him, sniffing, her nose clearly stuffed.

Gibbs stopped and turned to her. "Cold or flu?" he asked.

"No flu, just a cold." Kate reassured him. "And don't worry, I'll sneeze into my tissues." Gibbs nodded and sat at his desk. "Unlike some people," she glared at Tony.

"I have allergies, Kate." he defended himself.

"Never had allergies," Gibbs told them. "Never had a cold."

"Never had a cold?" Kate asked in disbelief, looking at the guys.

"Nope, never had the flu either."

"Why do I believe that?" she whispered to Tony and Tim.

Tony blocked his mouth with the stack of letters that Tim handed him and leaned down to Kate. "If you were a bug, would you bite Gibbs?"

Kate chuckled.

"Todd," Claire growled as she rounded on her friend’s desk. "You ran away from me."

Kate winced. "I didn't run," she told her. "Just walked, really, really fast."

Claire scoffed. "You ran to your car, drove away. Faster than Agent Gibbs." she noted, and Gibbs glanced at her. "Now drink this," she said, holding out a Styrofoam cup to her.

Kate clearly paled at the sight of it, and shoved her chair back as far as it would go as Claire set the cup on her desk. "Get that away from me,"

"What's that?" Tim asked.

"Go ahead," Kate told him. "Take a sniff. Hopefully, you'll die before the scent of it seeps into your brain forever."

"Hm." Tony voiced, looking between Claire and Kate. He reached for the cup and pulled the lid off, looking at the liquid inside. It wasn't coffee, it looked more like soup.

"Got a remedy, Novak?" Gibbs said.

Claire looked at him and smirked. "Doesn't everybody?"

Gibbs chuckled and shook his head, clicking on his computer.

"Ugh," Tony gagged visibly, jerking the cup from his nose. He doubled over, trying to hold the cup as far from his as possible. "Probie, take it, take it." He put it in Tim's general direction, but after seeing a reaction like that, there was no way he was touching it. 

"Don't be a baby, Tony." Claire told him, taking the cup from him before he spilled it and put the lid back on.

"That good, huh?" Gibbs nodded and Claire grinned at him again. "Family recipe?"

"Nope," Claire shook her head. "Made it myself."

"I'm not taking it," Kate said again, glaring as Claire put the cup back on her desk.

"She didn't last time, and that's why she's sick again." Claire told Gibbs.

"You should take it," Gibbs told his Agent.

"I think I'll survive better, longer, if I don't." Kate said.

"Suit yourself," Claire crossed her arms, "but don't blame me when snot comes from places that aren't your nose."

"Eww!"

"You should probably stick to tea," Tim told Kate, as he handed her, her mail. And continued to leaf through the pile of mail.

"I plan to," she agreed and Claire gave her a disappointed look.

"This one just says _NCIS Special Agent._ " Tim said in confusion, holding up a an envelope, sealed with a kiss.

Tony glanced at it and smirked; definitely time for some payback for this morning. "I think that's mine, McGee." He gripped the letter.

Tim held fast though. "Huh? How do you know?"

Tony yanked it from his grasp and flipped it around. "I recognize the lips." He backed to his desk.

"Oh! You do, do you?" Claire cleared her throat, a brow raised as she looked at Tony, her arms crossed over her chest

"Oh, you did it now." Kate sung, sounding very nasal.

Tony leaned against his desk. "Well, yeah. There were women before you,"

"I hope you like the couch, DiNozzo." Kate smirked.

"Go ahead," Claire told him, coming next to him and leaning a hip against his desk, her arms still crossed over her chest. "Open it." She dared.

"I am," he told her.

Tim shook his head and went back to his desk, whatever Claire dished out, was deserved. Tony cut open one of the sides with an opener and glanced at Claire before he pinched the sides, opening it. Claire watched as he puffed his cheeks out to blow, and she slapped a hand over his mouth. But it was too late, the breath already left his lips. White power puffed from the envelope and showered down. Tony was wide-eyed as he looked down at the envelope.

The team was slow in moving, but Gibbs took action as he jumped up onto his desk and whistled harshly. Everyone in the office stopped and looked at him. "We have opened an letter with white power, use the south-east corridor to the holding room. You all know the drill,"

"I am going to _kill_ you, Tony." Claire hissed at him.

Tony slowly twisted around, Claire's hand still over his mouth and nose as he dropped the letter on his desk.

"Claire!" Kate tossed her friend a water bottle and grabbed her phone, hitting the emergency button. "Letter opened in Special Agent Gibbs' office, dispersed a fine white power. Initiating bio-attack procedures. Third floor is evacuating." She hung up and dodged around Claire and Tony, and grabbed a panicked, nervous Tim.

Claire finally let go of Tony's face as he grabbed his trash can and put it on his desk, breathing as less as possible. She twisted the cap off the bottle and carefully poured it over Tony's hands over the can and then his head.

"McGee, you up on procedure?" Gibbs said, watching Tony and Claire.

"Y-yeah, uh, we shower, burn our clothes, get our blood tested," He tore his gaze from the couple and glanced at Gibbs. "Nobody leaves the building until the substance is identified except..." he trailed off as he backed up with Kate and glanced at Tony.

"Lucky me," Tony voiced, where Claire was still carefully pouring water on him. "I win a free trip to Bethesda to be a pin cushion."

"And Claire," Kate said, glancing at Gibbs.

"I'm fine," Claire said, stopping.

"You were right next to him," Tim said.

"They're right," Tony said, looking at her through the water in his eyes.

"It wasn't in my face," Claire glared at him.

"Novak," Gibbs barked, "You too."

Claire gritted her teeth and handed the water to Tony, and he gave her the same treatment. "I'm so glad that I woke up this morning," she muttered.

"They shut the air off," Kate voiced. "Let's hit the showers." Patting Tim's shoulder and lead him along.

"I thought you'd never ask." Tony said. "Come on, Claire." Tony grabbed her hand and led her along. "Sorry, boss." He muttered as they passed Gibbs.

Gibbs watched them go, peeved at himself for not paying more attention to his team.

…

They hit the showers. Tim was in the first stall, then Kate, Tony, Claire and lastly, Gibbs.

"Who would send me a letter with anthrax?" Tony called through the spray.

"Pick a girl, Tony." Kate told him. "Any girl."

"I wish I could be on that list." Claire growled at him, glaring at the wall that separated them as the warm spray soaked her hair, and she lathered her scrubby with disinfectant soap.

"That's not funny," Tony told them.

"I know," Kate agreed, suds covering her skin.

"I'm gonna kill you, Tony." Clair answered instead.

"Claire," Tony sighed, hurt as he started to scrub himself down.

"I know, this is serious," Claire said.

"Exactly." Tony glowered, "This very instant someone is incinerating my Armani Gilda Azania suit, my Armani tie, my Dolchache-avana shirt and my Gnocchi shoes."

Kate scrunched up her face and glanced at the wall that separated them in disbelief. Of course that was what he was most upset about, not his own health or Claire’s, but instead his stupid clothes!

"You know, it might not be anthrax." Tim finally spoke up, scrubbing down like the others, lathered in suds. 

"Thank you, Probie!" Tony called over, glad someone was on his side.

"Yeah, I mean it could be Small Pox, Bubonic Plague, Calera\--" Tim started to list off, his face turned from the spray.

"Probie!" Tony snapped, freezing for a second.

Tim froze for an instant and winced at his slip. "Foot powder, face powder... talcum power." He quickly shot off.

Tony's arm shot into the air. "Honey dust!" he blurted, grinning.

"Tony!" Claire shouted in turn, in protest.

"Honey dust?" Tim asked in confusion.

"Honey dust," Tony said in agreement. "I give it to girls."

" _Tony!"_ Claire barked. "Shut up..."

There was silence and he could feel the glare of disgust coming from Kate in the stall next to his; knowing that it upset her when he said ‘girls’. "Women," Tony corrected. "Sorry, Kate; women. Or woman. Right, Claire?"

"I'm going to kill you, DiNozzo." Claire repeated through her teeth.

"It's very sensuous," he told Tim. "You apply it with a feather."

Kate laughed, rubbing her ribs with the cloth. "You don't use the whole chicken?" she said with sarcasm. Tony just shook his head in answer, her humour was weird.

"Never heard of honey dust," Tim admitted.

"That's because your mother raised you to respect women, McGee." Kate reassured him.

"It makes a woman's skin feel silky smooth," Gibbs finally chimed in because the conversation was going to lead into a big fight, his foot planted on the stall's wall that separated him and Claire as he scrubbed his leg with the loofah. "When kissed, it tastes like honey." The only sound was the running showers as the four Agents peeked out from their stalls, and looked at Gibbs'. "Got a box of Honey Dust last Christmas," he filled the silence. "No card." He concluded.

"Ah," Tony popped back into his stall a winced in place. That had to of been a mix-up. "Think the post office screwed up, boss. Someone else got your bottle of Jack, while you got their Honey Dust."

"Your just jealous, DiNozzo." Claire called.

"I don't get jealous!" Tony fired back with a glower.

"Hey!" Kate interrupted what she knew was going to be an argument. "Doesn't the post office irradiate our mail?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's right." Tim jumped in readily. "All Federal mail is funnelled through the Ion-B facility in Bridge Port, New Jersey. If it has DNA, it dies."

"The diseases that you named, they-they had DNA?" Tony asked with hope, scrubbing his front.

"They do!" Tim agreed.

"Aw, you should have let him squirm." Kate said. "You hear that, Claire?"

"Got it!" she called back.

Tony laughed. "Then it's no worries!"

"When we're done, I'm still going to kill you, Tony." Claire said.

"Me too," Kate agreed.

"Unless the post office screwed up again." Gibbs told them. Scrubbing his head while he dashed the couple's hope.

…

They were finally done in the showers and were forced to wear blue jumpsuits. They were escorted to Ducky's autopsy. He took the teams blood. Tim was unable sit and instead he paced around the table that Tony, Claire and Kate sat on, side by side and in that order. Ducky was currently taking blood from Gibbs the next table over.

"You should have given the letter to me, McGee." Gibbs scolded his youngest Agent softly, as Ducky undid the band from around his arm, finished taking a sample of his blood.

"I know, boss." Tim paced in front him in shame.

"It's not McGee's fault," Kate defended her friend. "Tony snatched it out of his hand." She glared passed Claire and at Tony.

"So, now it's my bad?" Tony demanded, glaring back as he leaned back on the table with his hands.

"Yes," Claire agreed, staring straight ahead. Her mind moving rapid on how she could fix this.

"You did grab it, Tony." Tim spoke up.

"Lame excuse, Probie." Tony turned to him. "You should've stopped me."

"You can't blame Tim," Claire looked at Tony. "You only grabbed it because you were pissed at me."

"That's, not true." Tony protested.

"It is. And it was stupid." She told him. "Who opens a letter like that anyway?" she said rhetorically, angrily. "Haven't you seen the movies? You never open a letter like that,"

Tony sat up. "In what movie has that ever happened?" he demanded

"It doesn't matter what movie! The point is that it can happen, so you don't." Claire shot back.

"Are you guys seriously having a fight right now?" Kate interrupted.

" _Yes!"_ they told her and she made a face at them. But  despite that, they were still holding hands.

"Everybody shut up!" Gibbs barked and they zipped their lips. He jumped from the autopsy table and over to one of the many shelves, grabbing a plastic face shield, a plastic bag with a pair of scrubs in it and marched over to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ducky demanded, shuffling after him.

"Find out who sent the letter," Gibbs told him, trying to dodge around the doctor.

"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh." Ducky shook his head, feet planted in place as he blocked Gibbs' way. "You cannot leave autopsy, it's negative pressure so that air-born pathogens can't contaminate the rest of the building."

"Ducky," Gibbs growled, "I have been scrubbed, sanitised... for all I know, sterilized. I have an investigation to open."

The team watched them silently.

"I have a possible contagion to contain," Ducky told him in turn. "Until your blood test clears you, I cannot not permit you to leave this room." They had a small stare-down, but for something as big and as dangerous as this, the coroner was not going to back down.

Gibbs wasn't going to either-- or he didn't want to. What he wanted to do was get out of here and find out who sent that letter and put his team in danger, so that he could end them painfully. But he also knew that infecting the rest of the building would screw that plan up. So he was about to sigh and turn back to his waiting team and Claire, when the door that lead to the garage hissed open. Gibbs turned as two men in orange jumpsuits and gas masks came in, the second one carrying a black case.

"Who opened the envelope?" the first one said.

"He did," Tony instantly pointed to Tim.

Tim looked panicked as the two guys from control went straight to him. "It-it-it wasn't me!"

Claire gave Tony a Charlie-horse for his troubles. "Ow!" he said with real hurt, but got the message. He jumped off the table, still holding Claire's hand though. "Nah, it was me. I'm your pin cushion."

The two turned to him. "Did you inhale any powder?" the first guy asked.

Tony took a breath. "I may have," he admitted, and probably more if Claire hadn't slapped a hand over his mouth.

"We took blood," Ducky told them. "Jimmy?"

"Uh, yeah," Jimmy Palmer said in agreement. "Five vials of blood on ice, to go." The autopsy assistant handed a white container to the second guy, who then put it in his case.

Kate couldn't hold it any longer, she tried to because she didn't have any tissues on her, but she couldn't take the itch any longer. She sneezed explosively into her hands. The two guys from control spun to her. She sniffed and looked embarrassed. "It's a cold," she assured the guys in orange. "I had it before."

"Which makes you even more susceptible to air-born pathogens," Ducky told her. "You should go to the hospital as well."

"Oh, no--" Kate started, shaking her head and waving her hand.

"Kate," Gibbs ordered, "Play it safe, go with Tony."

"Heh." She scoffed. "If I have to go, then so does Clai--"

"Nope," Claire interrupted.

"Novak--" Gibbs looked at her.

Claire slid from the table and went straight to Gibbs, looking the bull right in his icy eyes. "I don't need to go."

"Don't make me,"

"Look at me," Claire told him evenly, "If you ever believed anything in your entire life, Gibbs, believe this. I am not infected, there is not a chance that I am. I can't tell you why, but you have to believe me that I am more use out here, than trapped there." She would have loved to tell him why, but with reminder with Kate's cold, and now this, she remember what happened when she was thirteen. Castiel the Angel had taken her as host, his essence had filled every cell in her body, and when he left her for her father, she now realized the fact that since that day, she'd never been sick; not when flu season came around, no summer colds, nothing. Having been taken by something as powerful as Cas, he must've left something in her. And right now, she was glad that those past events had happened.

Gibbs stared at her, into her big aqua eyes. Into her unblinking, unmoving, unfazed gaze. He dove right it, searching for doubt or deceit, anything. He wasn't even sure why he ever bothered, Claire had been right next to Tony, not even thirty cm away, but his gut told him to, and his gut had never been wrong so far, so he hoped that it wouldn't be this time. "Just those two," Gibbs told the guys in orange, not taking his eyes from Claire for a moment later.

"But, boss--!" Tony started in protest, and Kate too.

Gibbs looked at them.

"Fine," Kate sighed, jumping from the table. "How long are we going to have to stay in isolation?" she asked the first guy.

"At least over night," the guy told her.

Kate let out a long suffering sigh, and a hard glower covered her face.

"Do you have double beds?" Tony asked the first guy. "'cause I hate when you get that crease when you push the two together--"

Gibbs smacked his Agent in the back of the head with the bag of scrubs.

Tony looked at him. "If I get anthrax, how bad are you going to feel about that?"

"Not as bad as you, DiNozzo."

Tony's expression turned sour.

Claire went to him. "You're going to be fine, Tony. Promise," she lightly slapped his cheek. "And be nice to Kate." She told him.

Tony looked at her. "I love you,"

"I love you, too, Tony." Claire told him. "But, seriously, if you get sick, I'll kill... the both of you." She looked at Kate.

"Let's go," the guy said, going back to the door that the two of them came in through.

Kate and Tony fOllowed him.

"I'm warning you, DiNozzo." Kate growled. "I'm not feeling well, okay."

"You need to relax." Tony told her. "And maybe you should have drank that toxic waste that Claire gave you, then maybe you would feel better."

"Hah, don't temp me!"

"Tempt you to what, Kate?"

"Do you like where you are, DiNozzo?" Kate asked through clenched teeth. "Because there's something between your legs that I can kick up to your throat." She threatened as they when out the door, it closing and cutting the rest of their argument off.

Gibbs let out a hard breath and threw the mask and scrubs onto the empty autopsy table. He was like a caged lion. They got Abby on video, down in her lab. She had contained the envelope and taken a two samples of the powder and put one in the masspectrameter and the other to a guy to be flown and tested in Atlanta.

"What was the powder, Abby?" Gibbs asked.

"White, with a hint of tan." Abby answered.

"Abs," he growled.

"Well, that's all I know until my baby speaks to me." She told him. "I'm auto-sampling for anthrax, plague, Calera\-- all those nasty little bio buggers."

"How long?"

"Couple hours,"

"I thought that you said these tests were fast?"

"It's not a pregnancy test, Gibbs."

Gibbs sighed and turned away.

Tim looked uncomfortable. "Um, boss?"

"What, McGee?" Gibbs turned to him.

Tim glanced at Claire. "Was-was it a good idea not to make Claire go with Tony and Kate?" he asked timidly.

"McGee, it's fine."

"B-but she was right next to Tony."

"I know, now leave it."

Tim glanced between Gibbs and Claire, the latter of which gave him a soft and reassuring smile. "Okay, boss." And he left it alone, he didn't understand it, but if this was Gibbs' gut, he wasn't going to touch it.

Ducky broke out of quarantine first because he wasn't infected or exposed, but he had shower like the rest of them before he was able to make it down to Abby's lab. It wasn't long after that that Gibbs was going to kill everyone, so he and Tim suited up, not breaking quarantine, and headed to the lab too. That left Claire. Tim glanced back at her in concern from inside his suit.

"I'm fine, Tim." Claire told her friend. "Just find the asshole who did this, okay?"

Tim nodded and then he and Gibbs were gone, leaving her in the autopsy lab.

Claire was fine with that because she needed to be alone in order to do this. She had sworn that she wanted nothing to do with them, and maybe she was a hypocrite for this, but Tony could be-- no, she knew-- was dying. And that was the only reason she was doing this. She slide down onto her knees, her hands clasped. She was going to pray... to Castiel. The Angel owed her, he did; he promised to protect her from harm. Technically, this was harm. If Tony died, then she would be harmed by heartbreak.

So Claire prayed to the Angel that took her father away, and destroyed her mother. Prayed to the Angel to save her the love of her life, her first true love. That he would do this one thing for her, even though she hated him for what he did. She prayed... for love.

tbc! in the next chapter.

 


	15. Love Lost, Love Won - Part 2 of 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Kate are stuck in quarantine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Swak. Multiple spoilers, as well as lines taken from episode. Special appearance by our beloved rouge Angel, note that you'll know it when you read it. This part will be alternate, as in there was no suicide clause with the strain.

Tony and Kate were led from the autopsy to the garage, and then loaded into a van. No person was in sight other than the two team members, the two guys from control and another masked man behind the wheel. They were kept in total seclusion to Bethesda, then ushered into the bio-control area of the hospital with warning signs and hazardous pictures painted in bright orange. It wasn't encouraging at all. They took the blood to be tested in the labs, and Tony and Kate had to shower again and were given a pair of more comfortable, two-piece, blue pyjamas. They got checked over, and then they had to pee in a cup. 

Something that Kate felt was rather unnecessary and embarrassing. She avoid Tony's gaze as she walked from the bathroom with a cup of her urine and handed it off to one of the doctor's, who handed it off to another guy in a mask with a clipboard.

"You should drink more water," Tony told her and Kate looked at him in disgust.

"Tony,"

"Your urine's too dark."

"I have a cold," she hissed. "I would say that I can't believe you're even commenting on that, but then again, I know you... And _ew."_

Tony smirked widely at her. So he was nervous, and doing this made whatever was going down, less nerve wracking. His mind was still on Claire, and why the hell Gibbs hadn't made her come too when she had been standing right next to him. It didn't maker sense.

"Neither can I," the doctor who handed off her sample said, turning back to the pair. "Dr. Brad Pitt," he greeted them from behind his mask. Tony looked at him with raised brows, but Kate's expression was much different, more like; _damn!_ "Yes, it's my real name. And no, I'm not related to _that_ Brad Pitt," he looked at Kate, "Wish we were, would love to meet Angelina Jolee." He chuckled as he snapped at the band on his gloves.

Kate chuckle back and Tony looked at her. Brad led the two of them to double doors that were marked: _Biohazard Laboratory._

Tony leaned towards Kate as they followed the doctor. "If I said what he said you would--" Kate elbowed him in the gut. Tony grunted, "You would elbow me."

"Shut up, DiNozzo." Kate hissed at him. "You should be glad."

"I am." Tony said softly. Kate looked at him. "I'd rather have you here, than Claire."

Kate knew what he meant, even though it sounded the way that it was. She was glad that she was here instead of Claire as well, but worried nonetheless, for all their sakes. "Me too," they looked at each other for what seemed like a long moment but for what was only a second, and tore their gazes away and back to Brad.

"It's not the four seasons, but hopefully you're not staying too long." Brad said. The room was big, but the thing that drew the Agents attention was the big glass room the sat in the middle. Brad walked over to it, and a set of doors hissed open. He stepped in and the pair followed, Tony shuffled a circle to take in his surroundings as the doors shut automatically, and a little light above turned red. There was a more distinct hissing as blue lights overhead snapped on.

"Negative pressure?" Kate asked, remembering what Ducky had said.

"Mm-Hm." Brad agreed, his hands clasped in front of it as he waited. "Air can flow in, but not out." Above the other door, the light overhead turned from red to green, and the doors slid open. They walked into the room, four hospital beds in parallel were it, with big light sources overhead that turned the same blue when they came in, and another man dressed all in white, with a lab coat, gloves and a mask covering his face. "This Lieutenant Cas Winchester, your on-duty nurse tonight."

Cas was tall and lankly, he had black hair with a slight curl at the end, and eyes that were like water. "Hello," he greeted Tony and Kate.

"You're a male nurse?" Tony grinned, and Kate glared at him.

But Cas just simply said a gravely, "Yes." The reason that he was here, was because Claire prayed to him. Something that the woman hadn't done since the first year that he had taken Jimmy. Castiel had told Dean of her voice, and asked what he should do; the Hunter's answer was immediate. Cas did have the knowledge to do this, be this male nurse that Tony had spoken of, he just had to put it to social use-- without being noticed.

"As a precaution I'm starting you both on a _prophylaxis_ with _streptomycin_." Brad informed, and Cas handed each of them a paper cup with water, and another smaller paper cup with the pills from the tray that he was holding.

Tony chuckled lightly. " _Prophylaxis_."

Kate shook her head as she swallowed her pills. " _Prophylaxis_ is used in the prevention of diseases, DiNozzo."

"That's why I use 'em." He said, and tossed back his pills.

Cas could help but look at him in confusion, how could it be humourous in that application? "You may choose any sleeping accommodations," he informed the pair.

"Thank you," Kate said as she went to the end, claiming the farthest bed.

Tony shuffled after her though, and smirked as he tried to claim the one next to her; she glared at him. It was bad enough she had to be stuck in here with him, but that close? But Brad saved her… her knight in sterilized armour.

"It is prudent that you keep some separation," the doctor informed, "In case one of you has been infected."

"Thank you, doctor." Kate chirped with a smile, jumping up onto her bed.

Tony glowered and slithered off his bed and to the far end.

"Brad, we're informal here." Brad told Kate.

"Kate," she smiled at him, biting her lip as he walked back to the other side.

Tony watched with a sickened look, was he really going to have to be stuck in here with the two of them, and not have a female nurse of his own. Nope, he wouldn't let her live this one down. If she was going to have fun with that, he was going to have fun with this. He jumped on the bed, his legs hanging off either side. "Ahem. These things sun lamps, Brad?"

"UV," Brad told him. "Kills the bacteria in the air... Although, I can arrange for a sun lamp, if you wish."

"Oh, not for me." Tony shook his head. He cocked it Kate, "It's for Kate."

"What?" Kate asked in confusion, still on the edge of her bed.

"Yeah, a little nude sun-bathing might get ride of those tan lines." He smirked.

Kate glared at him. "I'm telling Claire," she threatened.

"Go ahead," Tony said. "You wouldn't believe the things that she tells me about you from college."

"You're lying."

"Am I?" he smirked.

"Doctor?" Kate looked at Brad. "Could you put him to sleep, please?"

Brad smiled from behind his mask and he followed Cas out of quarantine. The Lieutenant was assigned to him last minute, his usual associate, Emma Ewing, had gotten a cold, just as Kate.

…

It'd probably only been an hour, but it felt like more. The slippers had come off, and now they were reclined back. There was nothing to do, and the lights were hard to look at. Tony had resorted to snapping his fingers, being as annoying as ever, and Kate wanted back to stomp over there an break a finger, just one would do. He would be to scared to even try after that, and she would be happy, even if Claire would be pissed that she broke her boyfriend’s finger, and Gibbs would probably feel the same, but for a different reason.

"You know what this feels like?" Tony asked her, stopping his action for a moment.

Kate picked at her nails. "I'm not going to ask, but you're going to tell me anyway."

"Like I'm the King of Cool," he told her anyway, just as she had predicted.

"Elvis?" Kate got sucked in anyway, too.

"Elvis was the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Travolta," he corrected her. "Is the King of Cool."

"Well, thanks for the clarification." Kate said with sarcasm.

Tony wiggled his feet that were propped up on the end of his bed. "And do you know why I feel like Travolta?" he asked despite her tone; he needed to talk because seriously, what else was there? And anyway, he hated the silence, it reminded him of his childhood.

"I feel a movie coming on." She said with dread.

" _The Boy In The Plastic Bubble_." He told her; Kate sighed and closed her eyes in defeat. Tony continued to explain, "Travolta play's this boy born with an immune deficiency-- this is before Aids-- he lives in this giant plastic bubble."

"Oh! Like that one with that hot guy; what was his name?" Kate said, she could do this, too, and she knew that it would piss Tony off. "Jake Gyllenhaal!"

She watched as Tony's head snapped around to her and he looked physically affronted at the comparison. "Don't you dare even compare those two; that was a horrible remake and you know it!"

She rolled her eyes. "Tony, Tony, please..." she groaned, rolling onto her side to face him. "We're stuck here, can we just make a pact?" she begged him. "Until we're out, I won't make fun of the _stupid_ things you say, and you won't make me listen to anymore of you film scenarios… Deal?"

Tony thought about it for a second, scratching his chin. If he couldn’t talk to her, then what else could he do in this box? He looked at the Nurse Cas, who was outside the glass structure, sitting at a station that monitored them. He wasn't so sure about the guy, he had said literally only eight words since they had gotten here, so he hadn't gotten a feel. But his eyes reminded him of Claire's wide, deep, aqua ones. "Deal." he said finally, realizing a hole in this verbal contract.

Kate breathed in relief and rolled back onto her back. She would relish this, and even drink that toxic concoction that Claire and Gibbs called a cold cure; the only thing that it would do, she was sure, would scar her for life. But if Tony actually went through with this, she would do it, the whole thing, with minimal complaint.

Tony smiled greatly, he was going to love doing this. It would annoy Kate, fill the buzzing silence, and keep his mind off whether Claire was sick or not. He jerked his arms up and linked his fingers back behind his head, taking a refreshed breath. "Nurse Cas," he called, and the other man behind the desk look up at him with a piercing gaze. "You ever watch the movies?" he inquired, and heard Kate's cursed breath from the other side of the room, realizing her mistake.

"I have had no need, nor the time to do so." Cas answered him.

Tony raised his brows at that, he supposed being in the Navy wouldn't give the man such time, but that was no excuse. "Well, let me educate you some."

Cas nodded. Usually Dean, Sam or Bobby were such ones that educated him on Earthly things, but a new source couldn't do harm. And this may give him an opportunity to delve into Tony's soul, and do as much as he could, per Claire's prayer.

"Okay, so Boy in the Bubble; Travolta." Tony summarized. "Ralph Belaming plays the doctor in the film, now Ralph Belaming was this great old-time actor; he was in _His Girl Friday_ with Kerry Brant and Roslyn Russell..."

Kate ground her teeth and pulled the edges of her thick pillow up to cover her ears, trying to drowned Tony's droning voice out.

Cas listened, his eyes flicking to Kate before going back to Tony. The Angel could tell that these two were the right persons; he could feel Claire around them. He could feel her essence on them because of his short time with Claire as his Vessel. Castiel could tell that Claire had been around Kate longer, but could also tell that she was more intimate with Tony. These two were the ones that he needed to save, though he was unsure of the level of healing he could do now that he was cut off from Heaven. He had healed Dean enough times, but those were all external, physical injuries, what Tony and Kate may have was completely different. And from a distance such as this, he was unable to tell, unless he was touching them, that always was the best, and most thorough way. But he couldn't just flash in there, wings exposed. He had to tread lightly, like Dean had told him, but don't wait to make a move until it was too late. Such things were confusing.

…

Talking to Cas had lost it's charm, and it was starting to get uncomfortable laying still on these beds. Tony would have loved to use this time to catch up on some much needed sleep, but with the cloud of anthrax and plague over his head, it wasn't a walk in the park; he knew Kate felt the same, even though her back was turned to him. That was why he found himself on his knees, on the bed, his face barely inches from the overhead UV light.

"You think they really zap bugs?" he asked her, because they really did look like those bug zapper cages that people have outside of their house. He didn't think they actually did, though, he just needed to chat, out of boredom, not fear.

"What?" Kate asked him.

"These blue lights," he said.

Kate couldn't believe it, even for Tony... "Are you serious?" she really wanted to know, he couldn't be that much of an idiot.

"Ever hear of a Placebo, Kate?"

Now Kate rolled over to face him, shaking her head as she saw him. This couldn't be true. "Tony, Placebos are administrated for psychological effect." She sat up on her elbows.

"Precisely," he held up a finger like a light bulb. "How do you know that these lamps aren't just there to make us _think_ that they're helping us? Hm?" he looked at her.

"Maybe they're there to kill whatever bugs _we_ breath into the air!" she told him in a condescending and pissed tone, jerking back onto her back and turning away from him.

Tony fell back and leaned up onto his elbow, still facing her, his head at the foot of the bed. "But then you should have just drank that toxic stuff of Claire's and then they wouldn't be needed." She didn't take the bait. "You may have a point." He agreed finally.

Kate was barely able to hold back the _duh!_ There was a beat of silence before Kate said, "You're scared, aren't you?"

Tony scoffed, maybe a little to quick, "Kate, come on. Me, Afraid? You ever seen me afraid?" he asked her.

"Well, not when the danger is something that you can confront." Kate answered him truthfully, and Tony slowly sat up as he listened to her. "But all we can do here... is lie around and wait, hope that we're not infected." She looked over her shoulder at him, "And you're not alone anymore, you have Claire now."

Tony looked at her, and swallowed slowly. He didn't want to think about that, what would happen if he was infected and what kind of effect that that might have on his Claire. "Now who's afraid?" he said to her, trying to turn the attention and dissection away from him.

"Anyone with half a brain--" she noted, but stopped when it came right into her hands. She chuckled, "I take that back, you're not afraid." She turned from him.

Tony didn't answer, but instead sighed silently. Because he was afraid, and he just wanted this to be over, to hold Claire, to be back home, and not be fighting, for her not to be upset with him. He didn't like it under these lights, to be away from her. It was getting hot and he wiped away the sweat that had collected on his forehead. He hated this.

…

Hours had passed and Tony couldn't sit up an longer, he was too tired. He tucked himself under the blanket, getting comfy, his head sinking in the huge pillow. The other lamps were shut down, except for his and Kate's. Brad and Cas came in and was hooking up an IV to his arm. He was hungry, hadn't eaten breakfast this morning, surprised that he didn't have to go to the bathroom yet, either.

"Late time snack, Brad?" he asked.

"Hm. IV drip increases the efficacy of _streptomycin."_ Brad told him, taping down the lead.

Castiel was checking Tony's heart and blood pressure like he had seen on Dean's favourite TV show ( _Dr. Sexy MD)_ , but that was not his main focus. Brad had informed him on the fact that Tony was indeed infected, now all Cas had to do, was confirm or deny it. And this gave him the opportunity. He could feel it inside of Tony, the wrongness of the Plague. Cas had been born before this sickness happened, but his father had not allowed him to descend as it was happening, the Humans had to fight this themselves, to build protection from it. They hadn't succeeded very well. Tony was not going too either.

"You learn efficacy at Harvard?" Tony asked, smiling.

"Michigan," Brad corrected.

Tony paused. "It can't be, it's too weird."

"What? You a Wolverine too?" he fixed the lead.

"Buckeye!"

This time Brad paused, he looked down at Tony. "Wait! You're _that_ DiNozzo? '92, Columbus."

" _We kissed out sisters_ ,"

Brad chuckled. "13-13 tie; you broke your leg..."

Cas went over to Kate, trying to process how he was going to heal Tony without the others realization. He took her wrist, checking her pulse. He didn't need to, he could look at her and tell. _Show is everything_ , Dean told him.

"God," Kate scoffed and shook her head as she noticed Tony and Brad. "They’re going to start bonging beers any second."

Cas looked at her, sure that was something that Dean would have liked to join in on, but believed that Kate should know of her friend's future. "He is ill," he stated, and she looked at him in shock. Dean would have scolded him for that delivery; Cas remembered now that humans beat around that _bush_ of theirs.

"What?" she demanded, forcing herself to not yell and she sat up on her elbows. It couldn't be true, not Tony.

"His blood is positive with the Plague," Cas repeated, though more humanly.

Kate looked back over at Tony, at the moment he was laughing with Brad, did he even know? If he did, why wasn't he panicking? She was, what if he died? What-what about Claire, she was _right_ next to him, did she have it too? "Positive?" she repeated, looking back at Cas.

"You are healthy," Castiel informed her in assurance. "Other than your current infection, that will soon be gone." he glanced over at Tony who was laughing still about the disgraceful beverage.

"So, doc, what do I got?" Tony asked him, having an IV put in couldn't be a good thing, not where he was.

Brad stopped laughing too as he looked down at Tony. He took a breath, "Bubonic Plague,"

"Plague?" he asked in disbelief. Brad nodded and Tony found himself chuckling at the prospect, it not really setting in. "Plague..."

"Yeah, Tony. Plague!" Kate barked from her side of the room, shooting out of her bed and passed Cas, stomping over to where Tony lie. Cas had no other choice but to follow. Tony looked at her. "Because only _you_ would go and get a disease from the Dark Ages." She stopped at his side.

"I didn't put Plague in the letter," he protested.

"You opened it!" she yelled at him, pissed.

"Yeah, so I opened it." He agreed. "What are you so upset about? It's not like you're Dying--" he stopped and looked wide-eyed at Kate.

"Yeah," Kate let out a breath, a hand on her hip. Lying to him like this probably wasn't a good idea, because if she, who had been across the bullpen had gotten it, what are the chances that Claire didn't? But maybe it would guilt him into staying alive. "I'm infected too." She shot a meaningful glance aT Brad not to rat her out.

Cas watched this, surprised that he hadn’t blurted that she was, in fact, lying. But his time with the Winchesters, if anything, had taught him to see deeper than the truth. 

"Oh, Kate," Tony whispered, his voice broken. "I'm so sorry."

"Well, you're going to be sorrier." She told him.

"No," Tony's breath stopped he looked at her, a soulful pain moving across his face and diving into his eyes. "Not Claire." His voice broke off.

Okay, so that was definitely the wrong choice and she winced at little. "No, remember what she said to Gibbs? He wouldn't have let her stay otherwise." She saw him let out a breath of relief. "Oh, no, no, just us. But I will make your life a living _hell,"_ she hissed.

"How?" Tony looked sceptical. "You can't be any worse than Plague!"

Kate looked at him, her lips pinched. Giving him a stare that could be in the same category as Gibbs'.

"Maybe you can," he looked away. "Maybe she can." He chuckled to Brad and Cas, the latter of who was watching with a very intense stare.

"I'm warning you, DiNozzo." She growled.

"I-I recall some plague flicks," he threatened.

"I'll tell them all your relationship mishaps before Claire," she threatened right back.

They loCked gazes.

"Hm. _Flesh and Blood_ comes to mind," he said. "Paul Hovan directed, Rudcar Howard stared."

"Tony thinks speaking Italian turns women on."

Cas intended to inform Dean of this new information.

"Obviously you've never seen Jamie Lee Curtis in _A Fish Called Wanda!_ " Tony was sitting up, getting riled up.

"Kate!" Brad interrupted.

"I know," she looked at him, backing away. "I'm wanna start my IV." She turned and sneezed explosively into her hands.

Tony licked his lips. "If I catch your cold, I'm going to be very pissed." He told her without any heat.

Kate gave him the finger as she walked back to her bed.

Tony looked at Brad. "She'll be okay, right?" he asked him quietly.

Brad didn't say anything and instead looked at Cas, who just stared back.

…

Cas was over with Tony, as Brad was with Kate.

"Why are you doing this, Kate?" Brad asked, leaning on his hands on the side of her bed, not even bothering to put the IV in.

"Damned if I know, but I'm doing it. You're not going to tell Tony." She whispered, and glanced at Tony. But the instant she did, she knew that she was doing this for Claire, for her best-friend.

"I've already informed Dr. Mallard that you're not infected." He told her.

"Ducky will understand," Kate told him. "Claire and Gibbs might be the problem."

"No. The problem is that Tony can infect you."

"What, with all the UV lights and the air scrubbers. Or are they all just here for patient moral?" she said with sarcasm.

"I cannot permit you to stay. This strain had been genetically altered to resist antibiotics. You realize what that means?" he demanded.

Kate scoffed, "That the IV in Tony's arm is useless." Brad was silent. "So why do it?" she demanded back.

"Well, it can't hurt. An-and it gives him..."

"Hope," Kate finished for him, letting out a breath.

"Hey, Kate?" Tony called over to her, breathless. "Tell Dr. Brad about the... wet T-shirt contest that you won!"

Kate looked at him and smirked. "Why don't you tell Cas about that, uh, transsexual you tongued?"

Tony sucked in a breath and quickly looked at Cas, who stared back with those eyes. "That never happened, that never happened!" he gasped, clearing his throat before he started to cough.

The smile fell from Kate's face. After a moment, Tony stopped coughing. Cas stepped up and wiped the corner of his mouth, as he had seen nurses do on the TV, and found a red spot on the handkerchief and realized that he couldn't let this go on much longer, the infection in Tony's blood was getting worse.

"Thanks for giving me the cold, Kate." Tony growled at her, his breathing heavy.

Kate looked away and back at Brad, worried as hell. Gibbs better have find who did this, and yeah, she really wanted to hurt Tony at times-- all the time. But she didn't know what she would so if he actually died.

…

Tony was coughing more now. It was getting worse, the plague was making him worse. His lips and nails were turning blue, a hard feat to notice with the lights. That was when Ducky arrived. Blood was at the corner of his lips. They X-rayed his lungs. His forehead was covered in sweaT and as Cas wiped it away, he took the opportunity to touch his forehead. The best that he could do, with his current position in Heaven or not in Heaven, he killed the infection in Tony's blood, the thing that made the Agent's blood bleed into his lungs. But that was all he could do, he couldn't take away the effects that it had had, just knew that Tony would not die. He answered Claire's prayer.

Tony looked up at Cas as he took his hand from his forehead, into the eyes that reminded him of Claire. His vision wasn't clear, but it was so weird, like, if the man's hair was blond, and he kept the mask on, he would be looking at Claire. But no one else had Claire eyes. God, this must be doing something to his mind. No one else had her eyes, except... her... father. He closed his eyes for a second, yes, he was loosing his mind, along with all his blood. God, Claire. He hadn't seen her since autopsy, hadn't touched her since thEn, he hadn't kissed her since that morning, hadn't made love to her since two days before that. And all that time, they'd been snipping at one another. It felt like forever since he told her: _I love you_ ; even though he told her before they parted. Tony opened his eyes again, hoping to look into _those_ eyes, the ones that where just like Claire's, her _father's_. But he wasn't there anymore.

He looked for Cas, but instead found Kate at his side.

"I’m sorry I teased you with all those movies, K-Kate." His voice cut in and out with his breath, like those hick-ups you get when you've cried too hard.

"Teased?" she demanded lightly. "You tortured me, for years. All I've heard is John Wayne and Clint Eastwood... James Bond." She stuck that last one in there as a tease.

"James Bond... is a character..." he instantly returned, even in his condition. "Played by Shaun Connery... George Lazavey... Roger Moore... Pierce Brozden..." he cut off as Brad came out of nowhere and stuck a stethoscope to his chest. He looked at Kate in confusion. "Why are you wearing a mask?"

Kate glanced up at Brad before she looked back at Tony. "So you don't get my cold." She told him, picking at her mask.

"Why aren-n't you sick?"

"'Cause I'm stronger than you, Tony." Kate said.

"Are not?" he shook his head.

"Are too," she argued back softly.

Tony clearly his throat or he tried to, he could feel it in the back of his throat, that urge, that _need_ to cough. It was light at first, then he started to kinda choke. He felt Brad's hands behind his back. "Tony, sit up. Tony," Brad said, pushing the Agent up as Tony coughed harshly, gagging.

"You lied," was barely audible with the coughs.

"Kate! You need to leave, now." Brad ordered her.

Kate ran from containment, crying, into Ducky's arms. "You were brave to stay with him," he hugged her.

"He's dying, Ducky!" she sobbed.

…

Claire sat in the passenger seat as Gibbs drove to Bethesda, not even caring at how many times they were about to crash. She was silent, had stayed in autopsy the whole time, praying. Gibbs and Tim had found the woman who did this to Tony; she was going to jail and a bonus was that she was losing her mind and dying at the same time. She deserved it, Claire didn't care.

Gibbs had grabbed her and was a force to be reckoned with as he charged down the halls of the hospital. But somehow, when they reached the biohazard laboratory, she had ended up in front of him. She stopped short too, and Gibbs collided into her. But it wasn't because of what was on the other side of those doors, but instead who had just come through it. Even in the coat, and mask, Claire could recognize him. He was the Angel that had taken her father's body.

"Castiel?" she asked him.

Castiel glanced at Gibbs once, before he focused on his Vessel's daughter. "Claire," he said, in the gravely voice that was not Jimmy's. He took off the mask, feeling better without it.

Gibbs looked right at him. He'd seen that face before, those were the same eyes as hers. And that was the face of her father.

"Tony will survive." Castiel told her. "I was able to rid his blood of the infection, but he will have to heal the rest on his own."

"Thank you," Claire whispered.

"I had not known if I should have come," he told her. "You wished that we never come to you again previously. I asked Dean, and he informed me that I owed it to you."

"Thank you, Castiel." She repeated. Even though she would have wished for Tony to be as right as rain, this was better than anything she could have hoped for.

Cas nodded and then he was gone, vanished. There was silence and then Claire remembered the fact that Gibbs was right behind her; he'd seen the whole thing. She slowly looked over her shoulder and was met with his icy stare. She winced.

"I will tell you," she told him slowly, she had no other choice after this. "But not right now."

"I agree," he told her. And they would, he would make sure of it, he wanted answers and she was going to give them to him. But right now, his Agent was on his mind. So he left Claire standing there and burst through the doors.

Ducky was there, holding a crying Kate. "He's dying, Ducky." He heard her say.

"Aw, the hell he is." Gibbs growled as he charged by them. What he did understand about what just happened, is that Tony was no longer infected; he believed it with his gut, like he had about Claire miraculously not getting infected when she clearly should have. He went through the door and into the containment unit but was stopped.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; who the hell are you?" Brad demanded.

"His boss," Gibbs answered. Then lied on the spot, "The bug had a suicide chain. It's dead, has been for almost an hour." Brad glanced at Tony and Gibbs went around to his bedside. He leaned down and whispered. "Tony, listen to me."

Tony's shoulders shook with the little cough.

"Are you listening?"

"I-- I'm-I'm listening!" Tony choked out in grunts. "Boss."

"You will not die," Gibbs said. "Got that?" Tony didn't answer, his eyes closed, his breath harsh. Gibbs looked down at him, he knew that being soft was not going to get the job done. So he reached up, and tapped the top of Tony's head. The Senior Agent's eyes popped open. "I said, you... will not... die."

Tony blinked and swallowed convulsively. "I gotcha, boss."

"That's good," Gibbs smirked and stood.

Tony grabbed his arm and Gibbs looked back down at him. "C-Claire...?" he asked.

"She's fine, DiNozzo." Gibbs said.

"W-where is s-she?"

"I'm here... Tone." Claire said softly, stepping through the doors. She had been hesitant to do so, afraid of what she might see, that maybe Castiel hadn't succeeded. Especially when she saw Kate crying into Ducky's shoulder, but then she saw Tony grab Gibbs' arm. And she could breath again. She took Tony's hand.

His gaze shifted to her and he released Gibbs' arm, the older man left, but not before giving her a look. She wasn't going to dwell on that now though, not when she had Tony back in her arms.

"Y-you're okay?" he asked, looking her up and down.

"I am," she told him, a soft smile on her lips.

"G-good," he told her.

She combed her fingers through his sticky hair and he closed his eyes for a moment, relishing the touch of his Claire.

"Hm. And you're going to be fine," she told him.

"Now that you're here," he agreed.

She smiled back at him. "I have been told that I am the best medicine,"

"I was so scared that I would never be able to see you again," he said, his breath shallow. "That I would never be able to h-hold you."

"You don't have to worry about that now,"

Tony furrowed his brows for a second as he looked at her, an old smirk playing across his lips. "I almost died," he noted.

Claire looked down at him, a brow flicking upward. "Yes," she agreed with suspicion, wondering how he could already be up to something so soon.

"Because--"

"Because you were stupid and opened the letter like that." She finished for him.

"Because," he repeated. "You didn't have sex with me this morning."

"What?" she scoffed.

"That's right."

"Where are you going with this, Tony?"

"You know where." His breath hitched.

"Enlighten me anyway."

Tony smirked at her. "In order to prevent something like this form happening again, the only solution that comes to mind, is having sex every morning."

"What? We can't have sex every morning!"

"I almost died," he reminded her.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Claire looked down at him, her face scrunched up. She couldn't believe this. "We can't have it every morning because if we do, we won't be able to function right at work."

"I'm that good," he gloated.

"Ha-ha. The best I can do is, every other day and twice one weekends." She told him. "Deal?"

Tony puffed out his cheeks, pretending to think about it.

Claire gave him a look. "This offer expires in three seconds."

"Fine!" Tony grabbed it. "Seal it with a kiss?" he waggled his brows.

"In all your bloody glory."

"You know you want to get some Tony-sugar!" he sung.

Claire shook her head. "Fine, but you never say _that_ again."

"Fine." He puckered his lips at her.

Claire couldn't help but roll her eyes as she leaned over him and kissed him breathless.

tbc!

 


	16. 'M Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets out of the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A week later.

Tony groaned dramatically as he slid form the hospital bed and pulled his pants up fully, and buttoned them.

"Seriously?" Claire asked, hands on her hips as she watched him slowly, and apparently painfully slid his socked feet into a pair of sneakers.

Tony looked up at her, his face straight. "I had the plague,"

"Oh!" Claire looked at him with clear false surprise. "I had no idea,"

Tony looked at her. "That's mean," he told her.

" _Had_ was the operative word, Tony." Claire told him plainly, her arms crossed over he r chest. "You don't have it anymore."

"The operative word, is _just_ ; I _just_ had the plague." He  told her as he slipped his shirt on over-head.

"Five days ago," she told him.

"It's the plague, Claire!" Tony protested to her, breathless as a nurse helped him down into the wheelchair.

Claire shook her head as the nurse pushed Tony to the entrance of the hospital and she filled out his discharge papers. She grabbed her car while the nurse waited with Tony, and by the time she got back around, he was still squinting in the sunlight. The nurse left them to it.

"Your car?" he asked when she got out.

"Is that a problem?" Claire questioned.

"Che-yeah," he told her. "Your car sucks."

"That wasn't what you said when we were having sex in the backseat." Claire's lip line went hard.

"Of course, we were having sex."

"Then give me the keys to your car," she negotiated.

"What? No way," he flustered.

"I love you, Tony, I really do... but get in the fucking car before I leave you here," she snapped with a growl.

"Whoa!" he held up his hands, but he didn't waste any time either. He grunted as he stood from the chair, and Claire took his arm as she helped him into the passenger seat. "I'm fine, I had the plague, I didn't get shot." He told her, breaking off to yawn.

"Oh, so you agree now?" Claire asked, as she shut his door and went to the driver's side. She climbed in and turned the car on. "That it is _just_ the plague."

"No," he told her as she pulled from the hospital lot. "That just meant that I wasn't shot."

Claire looked at him from the corner of her eye for a moment, before she sighed and turned them back onto the road. It was silent after that, and almost 45 minutes later when Claire pulled into her parking spot at their apartment building, she realized why. She undid her belt, and turned to Tony, and found his head back against the head rest, his eyes closed and mouth slightly agape. 

She manoeuvred in her seat, until she was leaning back against her door, and watched him. He looked horrible; pale, loss of weight, his lips were cracked, his eyes were sunken and dark, his hair was un-styled. Even after sleeping for most of the five days that he was in the hospital, he kept yawning and dozing off. Claire knew that it could never be, _just_ the plague, 'cause it was the god damned _plague._ She kept fighting with him so that he would yell back, and she would know that he was fine. She was afraid that when he was asleep and couldn't tell whether or not he was breathing, it freaked her out enough to jiggle the bed until he moaned and shifted. She knew that it was childish and she was usually more realistic than that, she didn't do it now. But instead found tears prick the corner of her eyes and trail hotly down her cheeks. She didn't know why it was hitting her now, the fact that Tony could have died if it hadn't been for Castiel, a week after the fact. But it was, and it was very inconvenient; she swiped the tears away and forced smooth breaths through her nose.

"I'm flattered," Tony croaked.

"What?" she tried to sound normal, but the quick sniff gave her away.

Tony's eyes opened and his head turned to look at her. "You're crying for me."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Claire told him with a stone expression.

"You don't have to lie, we're all adults here." He sat up.

"Shut up, Tony." She told him.

"Claire... I don't want you to cry." He cupped her cheek. "Like you said, it was _just_ the plague."

"It wasn't _just_ the plague, Tony-- it was _the_ plague!" she told him, upset. "You could have died."

"But I didn't." He reasoned.

"No shit!" she shot back unnecessarily.

"Thanks for the support." He deadpanned. "Anyway, it's kinda gross."

" _Oh,_ " she slapped his hand away. "I'm over it now."

"Good," he snapped off a smile. "Now, are we going sit here all day or what?"

Claire grinned at him widely, "I think that you're going to enjoy this next part."

12 minutes later...

"Tony?" Claire called down from the top of the flight of stairs. "Are you okay?"

Horrible wheezing drifted up in answer.

"Do I need to call an ambulance?"

"No... am... bu... lance..." Tony gasped, hanging on the rail for what seemed like his life.

"Just sit down,"

"How many... more?"

"Just this one flight" she reassured him.

"Alright..." Tony grunted loudly as he dragged his foot up a step, his arms shaking as he pulled himself up after it.

"Tony..." Claire sighed. "Just let me help you."

"I'm fine," he ground back.

Claire sighed again and crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall.

"Don't watch," he gasped.

Claire took a breath, an inward sigh was more like it and turned her gaze away. It was another ten minutes almost before he made a sound that was more animal than not, as he jerked himself up to the top of the steps and collapsed on his belly. "You finished?" she asked him, looking down.

It took a minute before he answered. "I'm just going to sleep here for a while, if that's alright with you."

"Tony,"

"Seriously, Claire, just... go on without me."

Claire scoffed. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I'm not." He told her, his eyes closed.

"Don't make me get the neighbour to come and carry you the rest of the way to the apartment." She threatened him.

"Which one?" he asked her, cracking an eye open.

She smirked. "The hot one; you know, the one that always checks out my ass."

"And... I'm up!" he told her, getting his hands under him as he pushed himself up, getting onto his knees. He wobbled, and would have fallen backwards down the stairs if Claire hadn't grabbed his arm. He used her to pull himself the rest of the way up, and then leaned against her as he still tried to catch his breath, it coming out his wheezes, his lungs screwed, they felt tight. "Hey," he said, looking into her eyes.

"Hey, back." she chuckled.

"Haven't seen you in a while," he told her.

"Okay,"

"You're kinda hot,"

"Thanks,"

Tony kissed her. "We should do it right here, right in the hall." He said.

"Tony!" she protested.

"Come on, it'll be hot." He pouted. "Maybe that hot next-door neighbour could tape it for us."

"First of all: gross! Secondly: no way I'm doing a sex tape. Third: This hallway if disgusting." Claire rang off. "And lastly: if the guy next door was going to do anything, his pants would need to be around his ankles." She smirked at him.

"What!" he sputtered.

"Yeah, I mean, if we're going to do this, we have to do it right, right?" she played.

"I can't believe that you would want to have a threesome... with him!"

"Only ever with you, Tony." She told him, kissing him.

"Damn right!" he agreed. "I'll shoot him if he even tries to touch you."

"I won't stand in your way." She agreed. "Now, are we going to stand here all day, or what?"

"I guess we can go," he rolled his eyes.

Claire closed hers for a moment, before they stumbled down the hall and into the apartment. Tony was all but hanging off of her, his feet dragging. She dropped him off on the couch heavily, and he grunted as he hit the cushions. She watched him for a moment, as he shifted himself in small increments, moaning the whole time, before she left him there.

"You just gonna leave me?" he called to her, his breath nearly back.

"Yes, Tony. I'm going to just leave you there," she said with sarcasm as she searched through the kitchen cupboards.

She left Tony for fifteen minutes before she came back into the living room with a bowl of soup, and Tony dozing on the couch. She set the bowl on the coffee table and sat on the edge of the couch. "Tony... Food." she said.

"Mm... Burrito." he mumbled, licking his lips.

Claire chuckled lightly to herself. "Sure, why not? Burrito..."

"I love burritos..." Tony sighed sleepily.

"Yes," Claire winced. "Unfortunately, I do." Tony cracked up at that, and she was glad that at least someone found it funny. "Come on, Tony. You need to eat something,"

"'m sleepin'." he whined, burying his face between the couch cushions.

"I know. You can go back to sleep after you eat, and you can go to bed, you'll feel much better in there anyway." Claire rubbed his stomach.

"Gotta go work..." his voice came out muffled between the cushions. "Soon..."

She sighed. "I'm covering you, remember?"

"Mm. Love you,"

"I love you too, Tony." she patted his stomach. "So, you rest..."

Tony seemed to like the sound of that, and he shifted, his hand reaching lazily out-- for hers, she hoped-- but instead honked her boob before it fell onto her lap. Claire quickly slapped her free hand over her mouth and nose, her shoulders shaking with repressed laughter. She couldn't help it; tired-Tony was in the same category as drunk-Tony and drugged-Tony. It took her second but she got it under control, and took Tony's hand, kissing it before she put it back in her lap. Those stairs had near killed him, his trek from the hospital exhausted him. He needed sleep at the moment, then food later when he woke up. She just hoped that when she was at work, he wouldn't do something stupid.

tbc!

 


	17. Replacement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire replaces Tony on Gibbs' team, she becomes the Probie while Kate advances to Senior Agent. This is her first case on the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Bikini Wax; stuff will be taken directly from the episode, spoilers, and AU twists, some parts will also be taken out. Smut: Claire/Tony.

Instead of going down to her office in the garage, Claire took the elevator up to the third floor. She had made arrangements with the Director; she would replace Tony through his time of absence, and her second, Connors, would take her place down in evidence. She came out of the elevator and Kate and Tim were already there.

"Morning," Kate smiled at her from behind her desk.

"Morning guys," Claire smiled at her and Tim as she set her bag behind Tony's desk before leaning on the front, her gun on her hip and her badge next to it. She was wearing her usual footwear, because there was no way she was going to do this in any sort of heal like Kate did, a pair of slacks, and a blouse instead of her usual tee.

Tim smiled at her as he came to stand next to her. "You nervous?" he asked.

"Nervous? Why?" Claire asked him.

Tim and Kate shared a look, and the latter came around and mirrored Claire at her own desk. "Gibbs, Claire, Gibbs." She said as if that explained it, and apparently to her and Tim it did.

"You're exaggerating," Claire told her.

"You can never exaggerate with Gibbs," Kate told her.

"She's right," Tim agreed softly. "You've probably heard Tony say it a million times."

"Speaking of DiNozzo..." Kate trailed off. "How is he?"

"Sleeping like a little princess," Claire sighed. "Got out of the hospital on Friday, nearly died on the stairs, then passed out on the couch until Saturday afternoon. Didn't move an inch. Now it's Monday, he mumbles some obscene things when I got up this morning, and that was it."

"Sounds like him," Kate muttered.

"So, he's fine." Tim concluded.

"Yep," Claire popped the 'p'.

"That's good."

"Mm. Try living with him," she deadpanned. "And you guys should know, I have done this before." They looked at her in confusion. Claire rolled her eyes. "I haven't always worked in Forensics, you know." They continued to look at her. "I worked with the FBI, you know! as a Field Agent, but I found something better than that, something where I wasn't actually classified as an Feeb’s asshole, and it was even better when I came over to NCIS."

Kate held up her hands. "We got you!" she chuckled and shook her head, before retreating back behind her desk.

Claire looked at Tim, who smiled back. "I think you'll be great." He told her softly and as he turned and headed back to his own desk, she could see that the back of his neck was flushed hot; she smirked at the reaction.

"So, we just wait now?" Claire asked them.

"Yeah," Kate told her, clicking on her keyboard.

"Right," Claire blew out a breath. "That'll be easy." She went around Tony's desk and pulled out his chair before sitting heavily in it, leaning back. "Holy crap..." she noted in wonder.

"What?" Kate looked up from her screen.

"This chair... it's so comfortable." She sighed.

"Everybody has these chairs," Kate said.

"I don't!" Claire pouted. "Mine's worse than hospital chairs, it was heaven sitting in that room all day, than my office filling out paperwork."

"Sitting anywhere without paperwork is heaven." Kate said dryly.

"Not if you have this chair," Claire told her, wistfully. She leaned forward and looked across at her best friend, and in a hushed tone, said, "Do you think anyone would notice if I stole one of these chairs?"

Kate chuckled lightly, but someone else beat her to it.

"I would," Gibbs ninja'd from the shadows, Kate and Tim jumped but Claire was no virgin to sudden appearances. "Novak." He had a coffee in hand, which from her friends, Claire knew was a near permanent part of his person. He set it in his desk as he sat in his chair.

"Good morning, boss." Tim announced into the silence.

Gibbs looked at his youngest Agent. "Let's hope it lasts, McGee."

"Wow," Claire looked at the older man. "Didn't take you for an optimist, Gibbs."

"Didn't know that you were going to replace DiNozzo in that chatty-sense when I brought you on, Novak." Gibbs told her.

Claire gave him a cheeky grin. "I'm not the one that cursed the day."

And just as she finished the sentence, Gibbs' cell started to ring. His icy stare pierced through her as she continue to smile before he flipped his phone open and held it to his ear. "Yeah, this is Gibbs." He listened along, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he stood from his chair and opened the drawer, grabbing his gun and badge. "Okay, we'll be there." He hung up. "We have a body in Virginia Beach," he announced as he clipped his gun and badge into place. Tim and Kate shot from their seats, copying the motion of going into their desk drawers and clipping on their badge and gun, before grabbing their bags; Claire already had her gun and badge on, so she just threw the strap of her bag back over her shoulder. "McGee, call Ducky." Gibbs told his Agent.

"Yeah," Tim nodded, and took out his cell.

Claire smiled at Gibbs as the group passed her to the elevator, and she got his stare in return. She followed them, and they went down the garage. Gibbs gave Kate the keys to the van, Ducky and his assistant were on their way, and Gibbs took the car. Claire was excited, she couldn't remember the last time she had actually worked a case as a Field Agent, but at the current moment, that was not at the front of her mind.

"Why do I have to be on the hump?" Claire complained as Kate pulled the truck out of the garage and onto the appropriate road to Virginia Beach.

"Do you even have to ask." Kate glanced at her, grinning.

Claire shook her head, Kate was no help, so she looked to Tim on her other side instead. Tim cleared his throat nervously. "Um, you're the newest Agent on the team." He told her. "That makes you the Probie. And, uh..."

"Probies get the hump," Kate finished for him, laughing. "Ain't that right, McGee?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I always hate the hump," Claire grumped.

"I feel sorry for you," Tim told her, always the nice guy. "But at the same time, I'm glad because as long as you're here, I don't have to sit there."

Kate chuckled at that, and Claire couldn't help the smile.

It didn't take long before they arrived, Gibbs was already there, of course, and Ducky wasn't far behind. The common area of the beach was taped off in yellow, around the bathroom and snack shack, there were squad cars and a crowd of half naked people. 

"Thank god DiNozzo isn't here for this one," Kate voiced as they got their kits from the back.

"Why's that?" Tim asked.

" _The Bikini Contest,"_ Kate and Claire said together.

"Oh," he said in realization.

"Yeah," Kate agreed.

"Oh, come on." Claire sighed. "Any male would notice it." She glanced at Tim, who was blushing. She looked at Kate, "Remind you of anything?" she wiggled her brows.

"Heh. Now I'm really glad that Tony's not here." Kate muttered.

"But we have his replacement to fill the gap." Gibbs appeared in front of them. "Let's move." He told them and started to walk to the taped off area, the three Agents were quick to fOllow. "Agent Gibbs, NCIS." He flashed his badge at a guy in a suit.

"Lieutenant Sumners, Virginia Police." the guy said, taking steps with Gibbs. "I assume you want to take this one."

"You assume right." Gibbs said.

"As soon as we found a Norfolk ID card, we cleared out." Sumners held up the bagged ID card and Gibbs took it. "I brought in extra men to seal off the area."

"This key doesn't leave much for an ID." Gibbs noted.

"There was a small beach bag in the next stall,"

Gibbs looked around as they walked and saw a brown van with a logo on the side and people packing camera equipment away. "What's _Volpe Entertainment?_ "

"It's a cable channel that caters to men, they hold the contest."

Gibbs glanced behind him at Kate, who noted, "I'll get a copy."

"Who found the bodies?" Gibbs continued.

"A woman at about 1400, she found one of my men soon after; she was pretty frantic." The lieutenant answered.

"Where is she?"

"She's in my car, back there." They stopped at the tape and he threw his thumb over his shoulder.

Gibbs looked at him for a moment before he ducked under the tape and started to head to the women's bathroom where the body was, Tim fOllowed him under.

"You don't want to talk with her?" Sumners asked in confusion.

"Kate!" Gibbs barked as his temporary Senior Agent. 

Kate winced and looked up at the Lieutenant. "He's not really one for chit-chat."

"I gathered that." He said dryly.

"Did you touch anything?" Claire asked him, and he looked at her. "Right," Claire nodded and Kate glanced back at her.

"Novak!" Gibbs barked this time.

"Coming," Claire said back and she went, leaving Kate behind the tape to deal with the witness and get an ID off the key card.

The bathroom was gross, to say the least. On one wall, there was a bench, and on the other, five stalls and two sinks, with two mirrors above them that were so dirty. Gibbs opened the last stall's door, Claire could see the woman's feet sticking out from under the door, and then the body was revealed. The brunette was in a blue, two piece bikini, her hair down, and her face in the toilet. Claire wanted to gag, but held it back easily; it wasn't because of the body, she'd seen way worse things, but the toilet... "That's one hell of a swirly." She muttered.

Tim looked at her. "Swirly?"

Claire looked at him incredulous. "You don't know what a swirly is?"

"Of course I do." He sounded indignant.

"Oh... You're so innocent, Timmy." She told him and rubbed his shoulder with a gloved hand. 

Tim pursed his lips and his brows drew together, he hated when people called him that. "I know what a swirly is." He protested. "I just repeated it because that was something that DiNozzo would have said."

"Oh,"

"You don't get paid for standing around." Gibbs growled at them and they winced. "McGee, pictures. I'll send Kate in to do the sketches."

"Alright," Tim nodded and took out his camera and started to take pictures of the body and scene.

Gibbs turned and started to leave, Claire looked from Tim to him. "What about me?" she asked.

"You're with me," he told her over his shoulder as he continued to leave.

"What? I'm not doing the scene?" she asked in confusion, "I always do the scene, it's kind of my job."

Gibbs stopped and turned around to her. "It _was_ your job," he told her. "You are a Field Agent now, Novak. On my team, replacing my Agent, and you'll do as I tell you to do. You're with me, is that clear?"

Tim glanced up at them from his camera. Claire looked at him with slightly raised brows, okay, so now she kinda understood what Tony and Kate were talking about. She didn't get it, not until the power that is Gibbs was directed directly at her. "Of course, Agent Gibbs."

He nodded and turned back around, Claire fOllowed him as he left the bathroom. He was discarding his gloves in the garbage can when Ducky finally arrived. She stopped at his shoulder.

"Ah, Jethro." Ducky greeted him. "And Agent Novak, I trust that Anthony is doing well?"

"He is, thanks for asking." She smiled at the doctor.

"That's great news, my dear."

"McGee, should be done with the body." Gibbs told him, not looking at Claire. "I'm sending Kate in to do the rest."

Ducky nodded and went inside. Gibbs walked over to Kate next, who was on the phone and Claire fOllowed him like a puppy.

"Well, thank you, Sergeant. You have been very helpful. Thanks," Kate hung up her cell phone and turned to Gibbs and Claire's approach. "Her name was Petty Officer Jordan. Her CO said she'd been deployed on the USS Monroe for the last 57 days. Ship returned to Port yesterday, about this time." She told the two other Agents.

Claire watched as Gibbs jotted a few things down in his note pad. "What did the witness have to say?" he asked her.

"Hah. She doesn't usually use public rest room, she has a phobia." Kate told him, flashing a grin at Claire.

Claire grunted in agreement. "She probably _never_ going to go in one now."

Gibbs glanced at her at the muttered comment. "She's no help," he sighed. He turned back to Kate. "What's the victims address?"

Kate looked down at her PDA. "9375 Rosewood Drive, Norfolk."

Gibbs nodded and wrote that down as well. "I want you to help McGee, sketches." He told her, "Novak's with me." He walked away.

"Okay," Kate nodded and looked at Claire. "Try not to act like Tony." She advised.

"What? I don't act like Tony!" she was thoroughly offended.

"Okay. So you don't do make movie references twenty-four-seven -- thank god, otherwise we would not be friends -- but like any human, you _will_ make a comment that'll get you smacked." Kate warned her.

"Novak, today!" Gibbs shouted back at her as he continued on his way to the car.

"Strike one..." Kate piped, a smile on her lips

"That one's your fault," Claire glared playfully before she glanced at Gibbs. "Here, Gibbs." She called back and was at his side in three seconds. 

Kate smirked and went to help Tim.

Claire put her bag in the backseat, before getting into the passenger seat.

PO Jordan's living quarters were small; a carpeted room with a bed, two drawer dresser at the foot, a TV in the corner and a compact chair, a mirror was by the window on the wall, with a little shelf underneath that held all her makeup, a small shelf with knickknacks separated the living area with the kitchen; it was small, had a small countered area, a few cupboards, a sink, stove and fridge.

Now this, was what Claire was good at. Processing a scene (searching a room for clues was her usual job), go through the scene (the apartment), look for anything that might tell them about Jordan and who might want to kill her, but instead of just collecting any evidence, investigate it too. Claire snapped on a pair of latex gloves, the corner of her mouth turned upward. "This place is pretty clean." She noted, looking around, done with the makeup; _nothing there_. Usually she didn't talk, didn't need to with her usual trade, but she wasn't just collecting evidence, she needed to let Gibbs know what she found out, that was what working with a team was.

"Yeah," Gibbs agreed, as he looked through her small dresser. "She probably didn't see much of it." He pushed the drawer closed and stood up.

Claire walked around him to the shelf that was separated into square sections, the place was small and there wasn't much to look at. Along with the few knickknacks that were on the shelves, there were small bamboo boxes in the nooks, there was not much in them, more for design than anything. She did see three books though. She read the spine as she picked up the book, " _Fighting the Bulge...?_ By: Jeff Dickson. _"_ She looked at the cover and snorted at the man on the  front, "Looks like Jeff is losing the battle." She put the book back and read the spines of the other two, " _Losing Is A Choice,_ and, _How To Lose 15 Pounds in 15 Days._ " Claire looked over her shoulder at Gibbs. "They're all weight loss books." She told him.

"And these are all workout videos," Gibbs told her, his back to her as he looked through the tapes that were stored other shelf on the wall next to the TV.

Claire looked into the last bamboo box and found a small pile of magazines. " _Preoccupied with Weight loss, Vomiting Before Attack."_ Claire sighed. "Sounds like an eating disorder."

Gibbs didn't say anything, but shook his head as he took the framed photo from the top of the chest; it was of Jordan and another woman, maybe a sister or friend. They were going to have to locate her, whoever she was.

Claire finally went into the kitchen, and right away there was something that drew her eye. On the small kitchen island was a small bouquet of roses. She found a little card, and took it out of the small envelope and opened it. "Hey, Gibbs." She called. "Check this out."

Gibbs put the picture back down and went over to his TAD Agent. "What'd you got?"

" _Tiff, hope you enjoyed my letters and live for the day that we can be together. Love, John."_ Claire read, before handing Gibbs the card.

He took it and scanned it with his eyes; another lead. "How romantic," he commented dryly.

Claire looked at him at that, who would have thought that the thought of flowers would be funny to a man like Gibbs. She shook her head and to hide her smirk, picked of the flowers and smelled them. She may not have the greenest thumb in the room, but she could tell this, "They're fresh," she put them back down and Gibbs gave her the card again, she picked up the envelope that accompanied it and slid it back in. "Huh," she noted as well, and Gibbs raised a brow at her, indicating that she should elaborate more. "It doesn't look like he had them delivered."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, don't companies usually stamp their insignia on the envelopes?" she asked. And held up the envelope between two fingers, showing him one side and then the other. "Blank,"

"Right,"

"Haven't you ever gotten flowers?" she asked him.

Gibbs turned from her and shook his head. "I don't like presents that need attention."

"Wait, hold up." She told him, and he turned back around.

"You find something else?" he asked her.

"No," Claire shook her head. "But, just to clarify... If a woman gave herself to you as a present, you wouldn’t like it because it would require you giving her attention?" Gibbs glared at her. "Right," Claire winced. "Not a big fan of flowers either," Gibbs turned from her again, to the little end table that held her phone and the pocket calendar; no messages. Claire continued to look around the kitchen and picked up the small stack of mail, sorting through them. "These are all bills form before she left," she looked around. "So, where are the letters?" she turned to Gibbs. "You think she chucked 'em?"

"She never got 'em," Gibbs said, turning from the table. "She'd been at sea for the last few months."

"Right..." Claire came back around the island. "So, then, she should have come home to a stack of mail, right?"

"No, she did what everyone who goes on trip does," Gibbs told her.

"Which is..." Claire trailed off and looked at him, she really didn't know because she never been on trip before, sad, but true.

Gibbs looked back. "She had her mail stopped."

"Exactly," Claire told him awkwardly, and turned from him, trying not to go red.

Gibbs smirked. "Haven't you ever taken a trip?" he said, almost mocking her stupid question to him from earlier.

Claire looked over her shoulder with a sour expression and Gibbs chuckled.

…

Claire blew out a breath as she followed Gibbs into autopsy, to find Petty Officer Jordan of the slaB with her chest cut open and her insides in view. She wasn't bothered by it, she saw all kinds of things done to bodies all the time; it wasn't new to her. Her first body was when she was thirteen.

"What do we have, Duck?" Gibbs wasn't one to waste any time as he stepped right up to the table.

"There was no shortage of water in her lungs," Ducky told him, nodding a greeting at Claire. "She definitely drowned."

"Any internal damage?" Gibbs asked.

"Well, her oesophagus was quite worn, as if she were vomiting excessively."

Claire came up next to Gibbs with: "So, she _was_ bulimic." And he glanced at her before looking back to Ducky, wanting the answer.

"It is possible," Ducky told them, "But improbable."

"How so?" Claire questioned.

"Her throat shows little evidence of self regurgitation" Ducky told her. "Preliminary tests conclude that her bout with hyperameses was caused by a hormonal imbalance." Gibbs went around the table and looked at the results on the clipboard in the doctor's hand. "Particularly a spastic rise in her oestrogen levels."

Gibbs was quiet for a moment. "Morning sickness," he said finally.

Claire looked at him in surprise. "She's pregnant!"

" _Was_ , my dear." Ducky told her softly.

…

"It's Petty Officer Tiffany Jordan," Tim said into the mouth piece of his phone, pen in hand. "J-O-R-D-A-N... No... I was just on hold!" he ground his teeth as he was put back on hold.

Claire was barking into her own phone at Tony's desk. This wasn't her thing, and she thought that it was quite reasonable to be getting rather frustrated. She was trying to get the mail that PO Jordan had stopped and was apparently getting nowhere. "A warrant will take days, I need it now... Well, I-I understand that it's Federal... But that's not soon enough!" Claire hung up with mirrored grounding of teeth as Tim. This wasn't fair!

"Abby didn't find any prints on the bouquet or beach bag," Gibbs stormed into they bullpen, none too happy. "That means one of you had better give me a lead." He glared at his three Agents, focusing on Kate currently. "Kate," he barked.

"Oh, um..." Kate grabbed her pad and flipped it open. "I talked to Petty Officer Jordan's rack-mate form the USS Monrowe. She said that Jordan bought an early pregnancy test during the brief stop at King's Bay." She told him.

"She knew she was pregnant," Gibbs nodded. "Do we know who the father is?"

"She used a payphone to call him, but his cell was turned off, said she left a message." Kate said. "Other than that… no."

"Maybe it's the _Love, John_ from the card." Claire said, and Gibbs looked at her with his icy eyes.

"And do you know who that is?" he said.

Claire winced. "No..."

"The mail, how long." Gibbs talked over her.

"Um... Two days, three tops." She told him.

"You got four..." he told her.

"Really?" Claire breathed in relief, this wasn't so bad.

"Hours," Gibbs finished.

She'd spoken too soon and looked away from Gibbs. How the hell was she going to do that without a warrant and how was she going to get a warrant. Kate gave her friend a sympathetic look, and Gibbs turned to Tim.

"McGee." he looked at his youngest Agent who just hung up his phone and had a piece of paper in his hand, a smile on his lips. "Are you waiting for me to announce you?"

"Um, no." Tim shook his head and scurried quick to Gibbs' desk. "I, uh, pulled the phone records from Petty Officer Jordan's apartment; there was only one call that she returned, it was yesterday at 1100 to a Lisa Kure." He handed Gibbs the paper.

"That's two hours prior to Ducky's time of death," Gibbs looked at the paper, "This address her work or her home?"

"Um, both." Tim said. "She's an at home yoga instructor." He glanced over his shoulder at Tony's desk, used to getting an inappropriate comment at the news, but Tony was sick and instead there was silence, it was kinda nice.

"Good job, McGee." Gibbs stood from his chair and pulled out his gun, clipping the holster onto his belt. "You're with me." He told his Agent and Tim couldn't help the smile as he returned to his desk and grabbed his own gun.

"I want that mail by the time I get back, Novak. And go help Abby, Kate." Gibbs said as he passed his two female Agents to the elevator, Tim in tow.

Claire sighed through clenched teeth as she watched the elevator doors close before she turned to her best friend. "What am I going to do?" she asked.

"I can't help you there," Kate told her sadly. "But you'll figure it out." She assured. "I'll be in Abby's lab if you need me." She said and took the elevator behind the stairs, leaving Claire alone in the bullpen, with useless advice.

Claire squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force herself to think. This was harder than she remembered, but then again, the FBI did operate differently from NCIS. That wasn't the problem though, she was an evidence gal, a dust bunny like Tony said. God, she missed him. But she couldn't think about that either, she had a case to work, four hours to find a way to get federal mail.

…

Kate looked at the stuff that was taken out of Jordan's beach bag, and picked up a circular roller that looked like a thing of deodorant. But when she read the label, found that it wasn't.

"Bikini glue," Abby told her as she turned from her computer. "The contestants use it to keep their bikini bottoms from riding up."

"I know," Kate told her, and Abby raised a dark brow at her, her arms crossed over her chest. "I did Spring Break too, you know."

"No, I didn't. But do tell."

Kate shrugged her shoulders. "It was just the beach for a week."

"Right,"

Kate rolled her eyes. "With some beer, College boys, and a few contests."

"Caitlyn Todd, the Wild Girl I never knew!" Abby grinned.

"Bikinis for a week." Kate admitted.

"Oh, you have to show me pictures." Abby told her.

"I do have a few saved, as much as Claire tried to destroy them all."

Abs laughed. "You definitely have to show me now,"

Kate nodded, a grin in place. "So, is this the stuff that Palmer found in the Jordan's hair?"

Abby shook her head and turned back to her computer. "No. I compared both substances. The stuff in her hair was a thicker wax," She turned back to Kate. "Speaking of Claire..." Abby said. "How's she doing on time?"

Kate glanced down at her watch. "Eight minutes left."

"Oh," Abby let out a breath. "I hope she makes it. It would suck to face Gibbs' wrath this early."

"Oh, she'll make it." Kate told the scientist, knowing it to be true.

"You sound sure of yourself," Abby said with slight suspicion.

"Here!" Claire ran through the door, holding up two small bundles of mail. "And not a minute to spare."

Abby looked from Claire, to Kate with a raised brow.

"Told you," Kate said.

"Good job, Claire." Abby told the other Agent as she set the mail on the evidence table. "How'd you manage that?"

Claire winced and glanced at Kate. "I might have cheated."

"What, you did?" Abby cocked her head. "How?"

Claire glanced at Kate again. "It's a secret...?" she tried.

"Hm," Abby looked between to two woman, who glanced at each other again. "You helped, didn't you, Kate?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the former Secret Service Agent denied any involvement.

"Uh-huh." Abby agreed, clearly unconvinced.

"Fine," Kate sighed. "I might have helped her."

"Help her how?"

"Remember that feeb in Mail Fraud that always flirts with me?"

"Yeah,"

"I called him."

"You didn't go out with him, did you?"

"Not exactly," Kate laughed at that and shook her head; no way in hell. "I read him section 2-A of the Federal Sexual Harassment Code, and then asked him a favour."

"Right on!" Abby cheered, and gave her a fist pump.

Claire grinned to. "So, how are we going to sort through all this?"

"Okay, we should each take a third and filter through it." Kate told them, ever the experienced.

…

Gibbs and Tim were finally back. And Claire barely waited two seconds after they were seated before she rushed in with a hand full of letters in evidence bags.

"Our _Love, John_ 's name is really Jonathan Redding. He's written out victim four letters within the last six weeks." Claire handed Gibbs the letters. "Kate said that the writing indicates classic stalker; if he can't have her, then no one can."

"That sounds like our guy," Tim voiced, reaching for his gun as Gibbs did.

"Got a return address?" Gibbs asked her.

Here was where Claire winced. "Um, Cell Block F. He's in the Danville Correctional Facility."

Gibbs looked at her and sighed.

"Dead end." Tim noted, putting his gun back.

"What do you mean, dead end?" Claire looked at between them in confusion. "We should still talk to him, shouldn't we? He gave her the flowers, she called him. We can't ignore evidence like that," she protested.

"There is no evidence," Gibbs told her, "He still in prison, Claire."

"Actually..." Kate spoke up, just having come from Abby's lab. "I just finished speaking to Danville's Assistant Warden, Redding was paroled thirteen days agO."

"See," Claire said, pointing at Kate.

Spoke too soon. And now it made sense, how the flowers could have gotten to Jordan's apartment when they weren't delivered by a florist company.

…

"Jonathan Redding was arrested for assault and battery in May of '01. He had two priors before that," Kate read from his file as she stood and went over to the big screen nearest to Gibb's desk with Gibbs and Tim. "Violation of a Restraining Order and possession of narcotics; two of his three arrests involved ex-girlfriends."

"We locate him?" Gibbs asked.

"I, uh, phoned his registered address, claimed they haven't seen him." Tim answered.

"His Parole Officer?" was Gibbs' next question.

"Called him as well, but am still waiting to hear back." Tim said.

Gibbs looked at him, giving him a stare.

Tim looked at him again, and internally winced. "I'm gonna call him again." He said and was very glad to go back to his desk.

"This guy definitely fits the profile," Kate told Gibbs.

"All we have is a rap sheet and some fan mail," Gibbs said, sitting at his desk. "Even if we find him, we can't detain him." He threw his empty coffee cup in his garbage angrily.

"Gibbs?" Claire questioned, putting the phone back on the receiver. "I might have a solution to that."

Gibbs look at her. "Spit it out."

"Redding’s former cellmate saw the murder on the news; he says that he had some information that we should hear." Claire spit out as so clearly instructed.

"In exchange for what?"

"Depending on what he gives us, right?" Claire said. "DA might cut him a deal."

Gibbs nodded, satisfied for the temporary moment. "Kate, go with her. Find out what he knows."

Kate nodded and went back to her desk, grabbing her gun and coat. But Claire was kind of frozen and unsure.

"What?" Claire asked him. "Shouldn't Tim go with her instead, or you for that matter?"

Gibbs looked at her. "Are you an Agent on this team, or not, Novak?"

"I am..."

"Then you're going. You're not a rookie, so quit acting like one." He growled at her.

Claire face scrunched up, but she stood and clipped her gun into place, taking her jacket with her as she followed Kate.

…

"Have you ever done this before?" Claire asked Kate quietly as the two of them were let to Danville's visiting area and to their witness.

"I have been at this a while, you know." Kate told her.

"Yeah, but have you done _this_ before? Interrogate an inmate?"

"Once or twice." Kate assured her. "It's just like any normal interrogation. This guy asked to speak with us, he wants to help. There's nothing to worry about,"

"Okay," Claire nodded. She was worried, if something did go down, she could very well take care of herself, even without the gun. But it had been forever since she worked on a team, therefore, it went without saying, that talking to a suspect was on the same ship.

"Just follow my lead," Kate told her, as a guard let them through the gate and to a table where a young guy sat.

"He's kinda hot," Claire whispered to her friend.

" _Claire,_ " Kate scolded.

"Sorry," Claire whispered.

The guard left them.

"I'm Special Agent Todd, and this is Special Agent Novak." Kate introduced as she took a seat at the table, but Claire stayed standing for the moment being.

"Luke," the guy nodded at them both.

"Hold long were you and Jonathan Redding cell mates?" Kate started off.

"Six or seven months," Luke told them.

"Six or seven?" Claire voiced, and he look up at her from where she stood behind Kate.

"What does it matter?" he asked.

"Just want to get the facts right." She told him.

"He came in around my birthday, so seven." He said, and Kate wrote it down in her PDA.

Claire's arms were crossed over her chest as she started to walk, slow around the table. "So, you gave him the magazine with Tiffany's picture in it, when was it that you started to believe that Jonathan was..." she trailed off as she came to his side and notice a tattoo peeking out from under the short sleeve of his orange jump suit. Luke looked at her, waiting for the rest of the question when she reached out and moved his sleeve, seeing the whole of the tattoo and what it was. Tony would have loved this. "You're an Alpha Kida Delta?"

Luke cocked his head in interest. "Rutkers, '91." He told her.

Claire sat on the bench next to him, Kate looked at her in confusion. "My boyfriend, Ohio State '89."

"Heh. Awesome," Luke told her, and Claire smiled at him; crap, she was totally thinking he was hot 'cause he was so like Tony. Kate, on the other hand, sighed and shook her head, this was going to take longer than it really needed to be. But, she finally got through it and when they got out of the prison, she called Gibbs.

"According to his cell mate, Redding stared at Petty Officer Jordan's photo's hours at a time. And then the letters started,"

"Then he was obsessed?"

"Oh, yeah. He found her address over the internet, and then his plan was to contact her when he was released. He didn't want to live without her,"

"Or her live without him."

"McGee track down an address?"

"Yeah, we're on our way now." and he hung up.

On the drive back, Claire could feel Kate keep glancing at her and couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" Claire asked her.

"What was that all about?" Kate asked back.

"What was what about?"

Kate scoffed. "Flirting with Luke? A witness, one that's in prison, no less."

"I wasn't flirting!" Claire protested.

"Oh, yeah, you were." Kate countered. "I've known you since high school, I know what you're flirting looks like."

"It looks like nothing because I was not flirting with anyone." Claire told her, glaring out the window.

"Stop lying," Kate told her.

"Fine," Claire sighed. "I may have been a little."

Kate looked at her again, before she looked back at the road. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I am... not fine." Claire admitted.

"So, tell me." Kate told her.

"I miss Tony,"

"Okay, even though I don't see how that's possible," Kate said, and continued when Claire gave her a look, "You saw him this morning, right?"

"Yeah, and I've called him." Claire admitted. Though he was asleep the two times that she did, that was fine, she knew that he needed his rest and when he woke up, he'd call her.

"And you're around him all the time when you're home," Kate said. "How can you miss him?"

"I don't miss him physically," Claire told her. "I miss his personality."

"What!" Kate demanded, flabbergasted. "Now that something no one in their right mind would miss. You are not in your right mind," she told her.

Claire glowered at her. "I know that you think of Tony like one of your brothers, Kate. But with me, it's totally different. I love him, despite the movie references, his man-slut ways... everything that you despise in him. I can't help it, I've always been into the sorority type guys. And that is pure Tony. He may be thirty-two, but he has the energy of a College guy, and you cannot believe the sex--"

"Ugh!" Kate shivered in disgust as she came to a stop at the red light. "You know I hate it when talk about having sex with DiNozzo."

"But, Kate..." Claire looked at her friend. "You should have when you had the chance."

"Claire!"

"Fine," she sighed. "But, you know, he's deeper than that five year old at work. And it's great. But After he got the Plague... I don't know. I just miss his blathering." she sighed again, more deeper this time, with feeling.

Kate sighed too. "You know Tony," she said. "He'll bounce back soon, and then you'll wonder why you didn't cherish the silence."

"I hope you're right, Kate. I hope you're right."

"Have I ever been wrong?"

Claire looked at her as the light turned green and Kate accelerated. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Kate winced. "I'd rather you didn't, thanks."

Claire grinned. "So am I going to finally get to watch Gibbs do an interrogation?"

"It's very educational," Kate told her, back to her logical-self.

Claire rolled her eyes, but smiled.

…

Gibbs and Tim had arrested Redding, well, Gibbs did. How, it didn't matter, they finally had their suspect in custody and in the interrogation room and Claire was going to finally get to see Gibbs in action. Kate was in the observation room too, Redding alone at the table, hands cuffed behind his back like the proper scumbag he was.

"Luke was right, this guy is creepy." Claire told Kate.

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You realize that you've been talking about Luke since we left, right?"

"He's a good guy," Claire defended him, unable to help it.

"He's a criminal, Claire." Kate said. "And you have a Tony-placment crush on him."

Claire looked at her through a squished expression. "Firstly, what does that even mean. And secondly, no I don't."

"Right." It was clear that Kate didn't believe her.

"I just feel bad for him, is all." She scowled.

"I can't believe you. I just don't get what you find attractive about frat-boy personalities." Kate told her. "Men and their Fraternities; it's just a pact to get drunk and laid, it's like that supersedes everything."

"Okay. Firstly, that only like 90% of it. And the rest is... Brotherhood and solidarity."

Kate scoffed and shook her head. "I don't even want to know how you know that."

Claire grinned at her. "I don't get why you're making such a big deal out of this; do you not remember what you did during Spring Break? Hm."

Now Kate was scowling. "Of course I remember, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about the fact that you're not even Tony's type, for God's sake."

"Oh, I am." Claire looked at her sideways. "You've just never seen me in bed."

"Ugh!" Kate shook her head. "I was wrong, you're just like them."

Claire could have said more, but Gibbs finally entered the interrogation, and their conversation was put to an end. They turned to look through the glass, the show was finally about to start.

"Finally. I've been sitting here for twenty-minutes!" Redding said.

Gibbs closed the door and took the chair on the other side of the table and put it at the shorter side. "Sorry about that, Jon, I asked them to put out refreshments and they must have forgotten." He said sarcastically as he took his seat. He looked at Redding for a moment to make sure that he got the point, before he opened the folder that was in his hand.

"Why am I here?" Redding asked after a beat of silence.

"Because killing people is illegal." Gibbs told him, not looking up but instead looking at the open folder in his lap.

"I didn't kill anyone!" Redding protested.

"Then why did you run?" Gibbs demanded, looking form the folder, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I owed the wrong people a lot of money when I went away," he said, looking away.

Gibbs pursed his lips as he nodded lightly. "Drugs?"

Redding looked at him. "And now that I'm out they're looking to collect. I saw the two of you and I reacted."

"He's lying," Claire said, watching.

"If he is, he's pretty good." Kate commented.

The observation door opened and both Claire and Kate turned to see Tim walk in, but not Tim in his suit either, but Tim in his workout clothes instead. "What'd I miss?" he asked.

"What are you wearing?" Claire asked, eyeing the uniform. "Where's your suit?"

Tim let out a breath through his nose and his lips went into a line as he saw both women trying to force back the smiles. "I chased this joker through a car wash, alright." He snapped lightly, coming to stand next to Claire at the window; Kate snorted at she tried to hold back her laughter, and Claire's shoulders were shaking ever so slightly as she tried to suppress hers. Tim glared at the pair of them. "My workout clothes were the only thing here that was clean."

"You're so lucky that Tony isn't here." Kate told him.

Claire threw an arm around him shoulders. "You look fine, Tim." She assured her friend.

Tim didn't say anything, embarrassed enough. And they turned back to the interrogation.

Gibbs took out one of Redding's letters to Jordan and slid it across the table.

Redding looked at it with wide eyes. "Where'd you get that?" he demanded.

"Same place I got the other three," Gibbs told him, slapping the other three letters onto the table top. "Petty Officer Jordan's PO Box."

"She never got them..." he whispered, looking at the letters, upset.

"That why you killed her?" Gibbs said, "because she wouldn't respond to you?"

"I didn't kill her," Redding said, shaking his head as he looked up at Gibbs. "I loved her."

Gibbs slapped the folder onto the table and leaned on the surface; this was going nowhere. "Where were you Saturday between 12:00 and 1:15 p.m.?"

"I was there, I was at the contest."

Gibbs sat back. "You're not helping your cause much, here, Johnny-boy!"

"I went there because I wanted to talk to her, tell her how much she means to me!"

"Why didn't you tell her that when you delivered the flowers?"

"She wasn't home, so I left them at the door." Redding's said, calmer this time around. "I didn't see her at the contest either, I waited, but she never came out."

"Did you go by yourself?"

Redding chuckled lightly, but there was no humour in it as he shook his head. "Yep, showed up about a half-hour before it started. Stood right in front of the stage until it was over... I didn't kill her." He paused, his eyes wet as he looked back down at his letters. "I just wanted to be a part of her life." He swallowed. "You have to believe me."

Gibbs watched him, sighing internally as he scratched his chin. If he was telling the truth, Gibbs knew a way they could find out.

…

Gibbs got the tapes from _Volpe Entertainment_ and they were down in Abby's lab, trying to find the evidence that Redding's was where he said he was. It was up on the big screen in her lab, but the picture was blurry.

Gibbs looked at it. "What's the problem, Abs?" he asked, looking at her through the computers.

"It was crystal clear this morning," Abby told him, working on her keyboard. "Got it!" she cheered when the screen clear and the picture was up.

"What happened?" Tim asked.

"I forgot to rewind it." She admitted, embarrassed. "Anyway," she shook her head and everyone turned back to the big screen.

"Cue it up from the beginning," Gibbs told her.

Abby pressed a few buttons, and, "Done," she told him. "It was a two camera shoot; one was focused on the stage, while the other one went for the audiences reaction."

"Fast forward it to around noon,"

Abby fast forwarded the tapes until they were at noon.

"Stop!" Gibbs told her and she did. "Zoom in B." She did. "There he is," he pointed Redding out, in the front of the crowd at the stage.

"Right where he said he was." Kate said.

"Yeah, but he still has until 1:15 to slip away," Tim pointed out.

"Speed it up, Abs." Gibbs instructed the Scientist.

They watched as the tape sped up and Redding's stayed in the same spot. "He's still there, boss." Tim said in disappointment, he was their only solid lead.

"So, then, that means that Jonathan Redding did not kill PO Jordan." Claire clicked her tongue from where she stood next to Gibbs, her arms crossed over her chest. "That means that we're at a dead-end."

Gibbs looked at her, his gaze hard. "I don't know what you do down in the garage, Novak. But I don't do dead-endS," he turned to the rest of his team. "So I don't know why everyone is standing around!" he snapped, pissed.

Claire stared at him for a second in surprise, a little harsh, but effective. "Her boyfriend, right?"

"Good," he told her. "Now move!" he ordered and the three Field Agents rushed from Abby's lab.

Abby looked at him with raised brows. "A little rough, Gibbs?"

"I thought you liked it rough," Gibbs returned.

She grinned at him. "I do... Like it when Timmy gets rough."

Gibbs shook his head. "There are some things that I don't need to know, Abby."

…

Claire had something, and she couldn't believe she hadn’t thought of it after all this time and drama. So much, in so little time. It was quite fun, actually, not the serenest that was done in the garage, the organized structure of it. No wonder Tony was always pumped.

"Where's Gibbs?" Claire asked, walking fast from the elevator and into the bullpen. Kate was at her desk and Tim was at the filing cabinet.

"Don't know," Kate told her unhelpfully. "Why?"

"I think I found us a lead," she sang happily.

"Where?" Tim asked.

"You know your interview with Lisa Kerr?" Claire said.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Well, when you told us about the spread that Jordan was doing in GSM, it kind of got me thinking." She told them.

"Got you thinking what?" Kate asked.

"We were at a dead-end, no clue who this boyfriend of Jordan's was; we went through her mail, the tapes of the contest, our only suspect was cleared."

"Get to the point, would you?"

"Right." Claire nodded. "Well, the one thing that we didn't do was check out the magazine that she was published in."

"That's not a lead," Kate shook her head. "They're just pictures of her half-naked, right?"

"True," Claire agreed. "But a lead nonetheless." She took her backpack from her shoulders and whipped out a copy of the magazine that had Jordan in it.

"How would you even get that?" Tim asked. "That edition was published months ago, no way you'd find it now."

"Oh, Tony has magazines like these laying all over the apartment like you wouldn’t believe." Claire told them.

"Oh, I do believe, Claire." Kate said, dryly, "Unfortunately."

Claire looked at her. "Well, yes, I guess that it isn't hard to believe. But that's not the point," she waved her hand.

"Then what's that point?"

"The point, Agent Todd, is that I found something."

"Then don't keep it to yourself, Novak." Gibbs said, coming from the back elevator and dropped into his chair, coffee in hand. "Share with the class so that they may learn."

"Right." Claire nodded. She skirted around Tim from behind Tony's desk and went around to Gibbs'. She opened the magazine to the page that she had marked with a sticky note and handed it to Gibbs.

He took it and set it on his desk. "What am I looking at, Novak?"

"This is PO Jordan's photo spread. On the first page, every thing’s fine, shot professionally. But the next page; those two photos, they weren't taken by the magazine." Claire said, pointing to two pictures of Jordan dressed in lingerie around an article. "They got them from her." She told him, leaning on her hands at the front of her desk.

"Why?" Gibbs asked, holding it up in his hands.

"It's something GSM likes to do," Claire answered. "Gives the reader a voyeuristic look into the girl's lives."

"Who do you think took the photos?" Tim asked, standing next to Claire.

"In the article PO Jordan said that they were taken by her boyfriend."

"Did you contact GSM?" Gibbs asked her, looking up.

Claire smiled. "I did do that, actually." She said, proud. "They said that the photos were taken by a local photographer named Jason Caplin, he's a freelancer they work with a lot."

"Check it out." Gibbs told her, holding out the magazine to her.

"Really?" Claire asked, taking it back. "Like by myself?"

"No, not by yourself, Kate's going with you." He told her.

"Right," Claire shook her head. "Of course." She looked to Kate and they grinned at each other.

Kate reached into her desk and grabbed her gun, while Claire took hers from her bag and they both headed to the elevator.

"I don't even want to know how you knew that stuff," Kate commented.

Claire glanced at her friend. "Knowing Tony does actually have some perks."

"It should, otherwise I wouldn't keep him around." Gibbs voice floated through the closing doors.

…

"I can't believe that you let Tony keep crap like that around your apartment." Kate told Claire as they walked down the hall to Caplin's studio.

Claire looked at her. "It is his apartment, too. And even though he uses 'readying the articles' as an excuse, they're actually pretty good."

Kate shook her head. "Those pictures are demeaning, they make women look like sex objects."

"Oh, Kate." Claire shook her head back. "When did you become such a prude."

"I am not a prude!" she protested.

"Back in University, no. You were quite fun, but now? You have a stick up your ass," she sang as she opened the door to Studio B. "The body is a beautiful thing that should be admired."

Kate fOllowed Claire, and a slow smile spread across her lip. "Okay, I take back everything that I said back there."

Claire shook her head. In front of them were three very fit men, in banana hammocks and covered in grease, getting their photo taken as they posed. "You're such a hypocrite."

"Whatever you say." She mumbled, not paying much attention to her fellow Agent.

It was a few more minutes before the photographer, Caplin, was finished and turned to them. "Sorry to keep you waiting, but I didn't want to, uh, you know, break the zone."

"It was no problem," Kate assured him.

Claire cleared her throat. "Is there somewhere else that we can talk?"

"Uh, sure. My office." He lead them away, but not before Kate took another glance back, Claire was so going to hold this over her friend. "Tiffany Jordan... I couldn't believe it when I saw her on the news." he told them. "Such a cute girl. Camera really loved her,"

"We were wondering about the two small photos at the bottom of her layout, it said that they were taken by her boyfriend." Claire told him.

"That's, uh, between her and the magazine." Caplin explained. "My job is to send in pictures and permission from whoever took them."

"Do you have that release on file?" Kate asked him.

"Sure, yeah. I have records of everything." he went over to one of his filing cabinets and pulled open the top drawer, it took him a second before he found the page. He handed it to Kate.

She looked at the name and showed Claire the paper. "Isn't that...?"

"Lisa Kerr's fiancé." Claire finished in confusion.

"Why would he have any reason to take pictures of Jordan?"

Claire scoffed. "Lisa would probably wonder the same thing."

"I'll call Gibbs," Kate said.

…

They brought Kevin Holte in; he'd already told them that he was having an affair on Lisa Kerr with PO Jordan; he was the one that was taking the photos of Jordan and it was his surfboard wax that they found in her hair. They got him to give a sample of the DNA and found that he was the father of Jordan's unborn baby. Holte told them that Kerr didn't know, but she suspected and searched through his emails and phone messages. They brought her in to watch the interrogation of Holte and she let it slip that that she did indeed go through that she listened to his phone messages. Then came the interrogation of Kerr. She heard a message left on Holte's phone from Jordan saying that she was pregnant and then deleted it. They got her prints at the scene. She was the one that killed Petty Officer Tiffany Jordan.

Claire blew out a long breath. It was late, no one else was left in the bullpen but herself. Tim had already written up his report, Kate too, God knows where Gibbs was. She really wanted to go home, climb into bed with Tony, snuggle up and sleep forever. But she wanted to finish this report, that way she wouldn't have to get up early to come in and finish it, she would sleep in until the last minute.

It was an hour before she finished her report, and the drive back to her apartment felt like forever. Earlier that day when she had went home to get the magazine, Tony was up and in the tub taking a bath. But when she got home tonight, the apartment was dark and she knew that Tony would be asleep in their bed.

She toed off her shoes and was quiet in the bathroom before she went to their bedroom. She stripped down to her panties and stumbled around a bit, not able to help bumping into a few things, which caused her to grunt and curse under her breath. But even though she was quiet, Tony shifted and groaned.

"Claire?" he croaked, yawning.

"Yeah," Claire climbed under the sheets.

"What took you so long?" he asked her, his voice quiet. He wormed next to her, and kissed her cheek, finding her in the darkness.

"Hm. You know Gibbs," she sighed, turning her head and catching his lips. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," he told her. He pulled back for a second. "You brought back my magazine, right?"

Claire rolled her eyes on the darkness. "Of course."

"Just checking," he whispered, his lips brushing against the smooth skin of her neck. "Love you." She chuckled, and shook her head slightly. He reached across her stomach, his finger tips brushing against her naked skin before he pulled her against him. Spooning against her back. "You naked?"

"Relatively." She answered, her eyes closed.

"Completely." He whispered in her ear.

"Have you been walking around naked all day?" she asked him.

"... Not walking."

She snorted at that.

"What? If I have to stay home for another two weeks, I'm going to dress how I like... and what I like is nothing." Tony pouted.

"That... makes sense." She told him.

"Damn right it does!" he agreed.

"I'm glad you're happy. Now go to back sleep, I'm tired." She mumbled.

"Sleep? Now?" he asked her. "After you're finally home, and naked?"

"Yes, Tony. Even after all that."

"Come on, you won't even have to do anything." He told her.

"Tony!"

"What? Do you feel this?" he asked and shifted in the bed pressing up against her.

"Yes, Tone. I feel your penis against my thigh."

"Do you feel how hard it is, how eager it is to be inside of you?" he asked, shifting again and rubbing against her, a strained moan leaving his lips as he breath.

"Very much so." She agreed, her tone sleepy.

"I swear, you won't even have to move, Claire." Tony promised, begged her. He needed this badly, he hadn't had sex for such a long time, it felt like he hadn't seen her in forever either, even though she was there that afternoon.

"I'm wearing underwear," she told him.

"That's fine," he told her, eager, sure that she was warming up to the idea. "I don't even need penetration."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"Probably not," she agreed. "You can, but only if I can stay where I am and you have to do all the work."

"I'm up for that."

"You sure you can handle it with your lungs?" she asked.

"Yep,"

"You'd say that even if you couldn't,"

"Yep," he agreed.

"Fine," Claire sighed, nearly asleep already. Tony had been doing a little better when she had come in that afternoon, enough so to prepare the bath. So if he really wanted to do whatever it was that he was going to do, she'd let him go for it; the Plague was never going to let him pass at a chance to participate in anything sexual. "Go for it."

Tony went on shifting again, adjusting himself. And then, suddenly, he was in place. Claire let out a slight gasp as his hard cock between her thighs, and brushed her through the thin material of her panties. Tony grunted out and had to pause for a second to catch his breath; he wouldn't admit it to her, but when he masturbated in her absence, he was near hyperventilation. She'd been holding off on him, he knew that it pertained to his health, he was all for that, but he was not going to pass when she gave him the green light to finally do something. This may not be sex-sex, if it was, he'd probably die.

He thrusted, small, barely any movement. But with the warmness of being in between Claire's thighs, and the way the material of her panties felt against the topside of his cock, it was almost the same. And he was already short breathed as jolts of pleasure went through him. She was feeling it, almost as much as she wished she didn't. She was tired, but Tony's cock didn't seem to be, even though the man it was attached to was gasping breathlessly. She could feel his cock through her underwear, she was sensitive between her legs, and he seemed to rubbing all the right places. Claire was getting wet as he trust in between her thighs, setting all the right part tingling with pleasure.

She was gasping along with him, their breaths hot and heavy. Claire couldn't help but push back on him, adding more movement, creating more friction, adding to the pleasure factor. "Tony," she gasped, her eyes no longer closed as she reached behind her, scrambling for his hand. When she finally found it, she pulled his arm over her hip and pushed his hand down the front of her panties. Tony didn't need at encouragement as he worked her clit with his finger entangled with hers. She was moaning, not so tired anymore, as her free hand worked her tits; squeezing them, pinching her nipples, twisting them in her pleasure.

"Claire," he wheezed, gasped, moaned, into the back of her neck. When he said that she didn't have to do anything, he'd meant it, but this was better and he knew, just knew that there was no way that Claire would able to resist; he was a DiNozzo after all.

"Tony... H-harder." she gasped at him.

"I'm... trying..." he told her, more breath than anything else. He was still hard, so hard it was painful, he wasn’t there yet and he knew that she definitely wasn't either, but he was getting tired by the breath, his leg muscles already trembling.

Claire froze at that, stilling everything, even his spastic movements. "Are you okay, Tony?" she panted, twisting her shoulders and looking back at him through the darkness.

"Don't stop," he told her.

And she didn't. Now it was Tony's turn not to do anything, because Claire had this. She humped the air, fucking his cock between her thighs, her thigh muscles working with the pleasure that they both received, while she made his fingers move against her sensitive and wet clit with her fingers, and was near to ripping her tit off as she didn't even try to be quiet, and Tony was grunting and gasping hard behind her.

"Don't stop... don' stop!" he told her, he was so close.

Claire knew this, could tell, she always could. That was why she shoved back against him as far as she could, making it so that the head of his leaking cock peeked out from between her thighs. She tightened them around his cock as she finally released her breath in favour of scraping the tip of her nail across the slit in the head of his cock.

Tony screamed out in surprise, calling her name, letting out a curse as his body spasmed behind her, against her, and between her legs as he came, his fingers clutched as a reaction as well, and he pinched her clit between his fingers, hard. And she came, jerking along with his cock between her thighs. It was a long six minutes before they were able to get over the orgasm and breath, both covered in sweat from exertion. And that was when Claire realized she felt it, Tony's come, on the outside of her underwear, as well as the comforter that was draped over them.

"Tony?" she panted.

"Hm." he groaned faintly into the back of her sweaty neck.

"You're not wearing a condom."

"I'm not?" he said, very much tired now, too tired to even want to take his hand from her panties and out of her wet heat.

"No. You just came all over me."

"That's nice," he mumbled.

"No. It's not.

"Mm."

"Why weren't you wearing a condom?" she asked him.

"Why weren't _you_ wearing a condom?" he asked her; okay, so he was dizzy and light headed, felt like he did when he climbed the stairs his first day out of the hospital.

"Tony..." Claire sighed. She nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, he grunted in return, but complied with her request and pulled himself from between her thighs and rolled onto his back. He was no help either, she could hear his breath and was sure that he had already dozed off. She pulled the blanket off of them, no way was she sleeping with that, especially when it dried and became gross. He grunted relatively awake as his hot skin met cool air. The outside of her panties were covered in come, while the inside was damp with her own. She was careful to take them off, and threw them on the floor along with the blanket.

She rolled around until she was facing Tony, them both now naked, and spooned up against him for warmth. She was going to kill him for not wearing a condom. But not right now, later, definitely later.

tbc!

 


	18. Hearts in Half - Part 1 of 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire goes back home to visit her mother, while Tony returns to work (let's just say that his first day back isn't a pleasant one).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Twilight. Includes: major spoilers, and conversation taken directly from the episode.

"Are you sure that you want to do this, Tony?" Claire asked him in worry.

"You can ask it a million times, Claire. But I'm sticking to my answer." Tony told her. He was sick of sitting around doing nothing all day. He never thought he would see the day when he became sick of watching _Magnum P.I._ , but it had arrived and it saddened him greatly. "Besides," he smirked. "I bet Kate and McProbie are lost without me."

Claire just smiled at him in agreement just to make him feel better.

In truth, she'd been functioning pretty well as Tony's replacement on the team, and gotten back into the rhythm of being a Field Agent again— it was almost like being back at the F.B.I.—almost. She loved her work in Field Forensics, but a change in pace was always nice. Claire knew from the start that being on Gibbs' team was not a permanent thing and she didn't mind. 

That was Tony's place and not hers.

She was just worried about him. Tony had been on sick leave for three weeks now, and he still looked horrible, like he had just gotten from the hospital two days ago instead of two weeks. Claire knew that Gibbs wouldn't let him do anything strenuous, despite the fact that he was a hard ass. 

"Kiss?" Tony asked her, waggling his brows.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Kiss," she agreed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in.

He took it in, this kiss was going to have to last him a week. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked her.

"I'm fine." She told him, her arms still around his neck.

"You can't just be 'fine'," he scoffed down at her, his hands clasped around her waist. "It's your mother."

"Mm." She just smiled softly at him, petting the back of his hair. "Remember, you're not going to be able to contact me, so don't go and get yourself shot on your first day back, 'kay?"

He chuckled. "You know I can't make that promise," he joked.

Her expression turned hard. "I serious, Tony."

The smirk fell from his face and his expression sobered. "I can't decide who I'm more scared of, you, or Gibbs." He told her.

"At the moment, I'd say me." She whispered with a cocked brow.

"Agreed."

"Good." Claire smiled and kissed him on the check. "Now go, before you piss Gibbs off."

"You mean more," Tony told her as he looked over his shoulder at her from the open door. "Gibbs doesn't just wake up on the wrong side of the bed, he lives there, he bought everyone out."

Claire chuckled. "Then I suggest you make haste," she blew him a teasing kiss.

Tony snatched the invisible smooch from the air, and with a wicked grin at Claire, he dropped it down the front of his pants. The last expression he saw on her beautiful face was an open-mouthed mockery as he closed the door behind him.

Her open mouth slowly moved into a small and almost sad smile as she looked at the closed door. Her shoulders moved with her deep sigh as she finally turned from the door and back to her and Tony's bedroom.

Claire was using a week out of the vacation days that she had built up so she could go and visit her mother, just as she did every year at about this time. She loved her mother, but Claire couldn't help the feelings of frustration that were brought up, at her mother just giving up and leaving her to hang on all alone. But she had learned to deal with them a long time ago.

XXX

"Claire's not in yet," Tim pointed out to Kate as he got up from his desk and walked over to hers.

Kate spun around in her chair, and set her closed sketch book on her desk. "Do you think that means...?" she trailed off and glanced at Tony's empty desk, the one that Claire had been using in Tony's absence. She stood from her desk and looked at Tim.

"You think Tony's coming back?" Tim asked.

"I don't know, maybe. He's been gone for two weeks already." Kate told him.

Tim didn't look good at the mention of that.

"What?" she asked him, coming from behind her desk.

"It's my fault that he's not here," he blurted.

"McGee," she sighed with sympathy, once again realizing what a good guy he was. "We're NCIS Agents, there is a chance one of us might die every time we walk through the door." She gave his arm a rub as she turned back to her desk.

Tim sighed, not feeling comforted by the woman's words at all. "Yeah, but I'm the one that handed him the envelope filled with plague." He told her, not feeling like he should get off that easy.

Kate gave a weary sigh as she turned back to the younger Agent. "Tim, it's not your fault." Tim didn't say anything, still not looking convinced. "Look," she continued, thinking of a great way for McGee not to feel guilty. "If you want to think about something... why don't you think about all the times that Tony had _insulted us_ , _invaded ou r privacy,_" she listed. "The fact that he almost died owing all of us money."

Tim was nodding slowly, starting to see her point. "That's true, he can be pretty obnoxious."

"Uh-huh."

The phone on Tony's desk rang and the two Agents looked at it but didn't move to answer it.

Tim let out a heavy breath. "You miss him as much as I do?" he asked.

"More," she told him. "It's part of his charm. He's like an X-rated Peter Pan." She started back to her desk before she realized that she was not going to have this, she was not going to feed Tony's ego by missing him. She turned back to Tim, the pencil in her hand following her arms movement. "You know he told all the women downstairs that you're gay, right?" she smiled.

Tim crossed his arms over his chest, looking offended.

"Said that it would cut out the competition." She said.

Tim was speechless for a moment. "That... bastard." He finally said.

Kate grinned. She held out her hands for a second. "Hold onto that feeling and you'll feel just fine." She stared to leave the bullpen.

Tim scoffed, this was not over. "You know what he said about you?" he baited her.

"Hm?" she turned to him.

"That you tried to sleep with him when you were in Paraguay." He told her.

The grin fell from her face. Okay, it was on. "I will kill him." She said with hostility.

XXX

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Gibbs asked his Senior Agent in the elevator ride up to the bullpen.

"Never felt better." Tony said, leaning against the wall as he watched the numbers on the panel light up as they passed each floor.

Gibbs looked him up and down. "Yeah?" he questioned.

"Yeah," Tony agreed, standing up straighter and looking at him.

"You look like crap." Gibbs said as he faced the doors, a small smirk on his lips.

"I missed you too, boss." He sighed.

"You got another week of sick-leave comin', Tony. You should take it," Gibbs told him instead.

"I was going crazy at home." Tony admitted. Yes, Claire had been amazing   
And relatively patient with him, but he had never been the kind of person who could just sit there for hours. That was why stake-outs were such a pain in his ass— literally and metaphorically. "I may not be a 100%, but you need me."

Gibbs raised his brows as he glanced back at Tony.

"Okay," he relented. "But what about Kate and McGee? Their practically lost without me." Tony told him.

"Even with Novak around, they got more work done in the last two weeks then the whole year." Gibbs told him, stepping from the elevator as the doors dinged open.

"They did me miss, right?" Tony asked, following Gibbs.

"Yeah, something like that." Gibbs took a sip from his coffee.

"I can't wait to see their faces," Tony snickered, getting excited, he ducked low behind the short wall that separated their bullpen from the others, ready for a surprise attack.

"You did the right thing, where was the park exactly?" Kate spoke into the phone.

"Hey, Kate!" Tony burst up in front of her desk, choking a little on the shout.

Kate didn't even spare him a glance as she spun her chair away from him, taking her notebook with her bag as she continued to speak with the person on the phone. "Sorry about that. Where did you say the car was?"

"Must be important." Tony told Gibbs who was settling into his chair.

Tony turned in time to see Tim enter the bullpen with a handful of folders. "Probie!" he opened his arms wide. "Did you miss me?"

Tim didn't even give Tony a glance either as he walked passed the older Agent and to the filing cabinet that was next to the plasma.

"What wrong with him?" Tony demanded, turning back to Kate who was finishing with her phone call.

Kate acted like she didn't hear him as she got up from her desk and walked around to Gibbs' desk, her notepad in hand. "Virginia State Police just got a 9-1-1 call, Gibbs. Two dead Sailors."

"Where?" Gibbs asked.

"In a car off Route 17 in Fredericksburg." She put a slip of paper with the address on his desk, before going back to her own.

"Let's roll!" he told them, getting his weapon from his drawer. "Gas the truck," he tossed the keys towards Tony, who put his hand up to catch them but they instead went over his head and McGee was the one that caught them.

"Got it, boss." Tim said, grabbing his things from his desk before following Kate to the elevator.

Both Agents passed Tony like he was a ghost, and he was left standing there as Gibbs stopped at his side. "You feel that?" he asked.

Tony looked confused, the only thing he was feeling now was hurt. "Feel what?"

Gibbs gave him a ripe head-slap and Tony let out a noise something akin to squeak.

Gibbs grinned and kept walking to the elevator. "Welcome back, DiNozzo!" he called.

Tony rubbed the back of his head and looked on in wonder, he had actually missed that.

XXX

The silver Mustang seemed to have been moved from the road down a hill at the side and to the small clearing at the bottom. It's roof was down and Kate started to take pictures of the deceased driver and passenger.

"Looked like with guy knew what he was doing, Gibbs," she said, looking at the multiple gunshot wounds that each victim had. "Tight groupings, three rounds each."

Gibbs was looking closing at the passenger on the other side of the car, looking at the positioning of the wounds. "Every one a kill shot," he said. The way the passenger was positioned in death, it looked like he watched his friend get shot and was trying to get from the car when he, too, was killed. Gibbs reached around the body and into the man's back pocket, getting his wallet. He flipped it open. "The passenger's Curtis Jansen, Pensacola, Florida. No Military I.D.; credit cards and money are still intact."

"So it wasn't a robbery," Kate noted.

"Depends," he told her as he pulled an evidence bag from his coat pocket and sealed the wallet inside.

"On what?"

"On what else is missing, Kate." He came back around to her side and put the wallet with her kit.

Kate took pictures of a bloodied rag that was draped over the driver's hand. "Looks like the killer tried to clean up." She said.

Gibbs came to her side and reached into the car, plucking the rag from the man’s lap. "Not exactly." He told her as they saw that there wasn't hands beneath it, but instead stumps where they had been.

"Ugh," Kate gasped in disgust, things like that still got her.

"Well, we at least know he took two things with him when he left."

"Do you think he needed the prints?" she wondered.

"Bag that," Gibbs handed her the cloth.

She went over to her kit and got a paper bag.

"Hey, boss!" Tony called from the top of the hill where he and Tim had been questioning the person who found the bodies. He started down the hill as he filled them in. "State police ran the Mustangs plate, it's a rental car from Dallas airport. I gotta call into this company-company— Ah-ahh!" the momentum of the down hill, and his foot getting caught in a tangle of weeds, caused him to lose his balance and he tumbled down the hell.

Kate and Gibbs could only watch as he was stopped by the wall of Kate's kit and backpack, and colleted evidence.

"Ow," Tony spat grass from his mouth as he lay on his stomach, dizzy from his tumble.

"You okay?" Gibbs asked.

"Just trying to catch my breath," he groaned.

"You should’ve taken that extra week off, DiNozzo!" Gibbs told him as he started back up the hill. "So help him up, Kate. I'll go see what's keeping Ducky."

Kate chuckled as she put the bagged rag with the other stuff and picked up her camera again, not moving to help him up. "That hurt?" she asked.

"Yep," Tony rasped, looking up at her wide-eyed as she snapped a shot of him.

"Good," she told him, walking back to the car.

Tony reached out to her turned back before collapsing back to the ground.

After thirty seconds of realizing that Kate was in fact _not_ going to help him up, he climbed to his feet on his own. He hoped that he was n’t rusty as he took out his notepad and looked at the crime scene.

"Looks like a professional hit, probably took the hands to confirm the kill." He said.

Kate watched him with crossed arms. "McGee told me what you said," she told him, offended.

Tony looked at her. "Did he?" he stood up straight and faced her. "Oh, come one. I was joking around," he chuckled. "I mean, I didn't really think that he would believe me."

"Oh, really? And why is that?"

"Anyone looking at you can tell your breasts are real." He told her.

Kate looked at him open-mouthed as she glanced down at herself. "You told him I had breast implants?" she demanded, grossed out.

Tony stared at her for a moment, frozen before he scoffed, chuckling awkwardly. "No, I didn't."

"Tony! I can't believe I even worried about you. Your are nothing but a giant— _"_

"Snake." He said.

"Yeah, exactly." She agreed with him.

"No, big, big, big, big snake." He told her, looking down at her feet. "Down there,"

Kate looked down as gasped in fear. A brown snake with red sections on its back was slithering over her foot. She did not like snakes. She breathed heavily as she looked back up at Tony. "Tell me it's not poisonous!" she said.

"I think it is." He said.

Kate groaned, trying not to move. "Eeew, what is it doing?" it started to coil around her ankle.

"It's wrapping around your leg." He told her and Kate made some more girly noises. 

"Do something, Tony!"

"Okay," he said. He shuffled closer to her. "I'm just going to try and grab it, don't make any sudden moves, okay?" he told her as he knelt on the ground.

"What if you miss it?" she asked, watching him as he touched it.

"They do this on the Discovery Channel all the time, how hard can it be?" he started to unwrap it, it hissed at his touch.

"Oh, no. Screw it!" Kate told him, swiping back the tail of her jacket and pulling out her weapon. She pointed it at her foot.

"Hey!" Tony jerked back at the gun in his face. "Put that away! You’re gonna blow your foot off, let me do this."

She holstered it, but that didn't stop the curses. "God. My life in your hands? I always knew it was going to end this way,"

"Quiet!" he told her, the snake getting piss-y at being handled. "You're making me nervous."

Kate whimpered.

"And now... just about there..." he got a hold of it and purposefully fumbling with it to play with her.

"Oh, God." Kate let out a small scream.

Tony chuckled as he held the snake.

Kate took a step back as she looked at Tony with the snake. "Okay, I will give you this much, you do have your moments." She told him.

"So, are we friends again?" he asked her, showing her the snake's head.

Kate smiled.

Tim came down the hill with no trouble and saw the snake. "Cool, a Corn snake." He gasped. "Can I hold him?" he asked.

"No!" Kate said quickly. "It's poisonous, McGee."

Tim shook his head. "No, no. Actually they're not, Kate." He looked at the snake.

Tony's head snapped to him. " _Yes_ , they _are_ , McGee." He said pointedly.

Tim looked at him in confusion and a furrowed brow, obviously not taking the hint. "What about the one that you caught in Shenandoah State Park? You had it around your neck for hours."

Kate looked at him with narrowed eyes. She couldn't believe that she believed him. Her lips went flat as she lifted up her leg and planted her foot on his left shoulder, sending him to the ground with a grunt. The snake slithered into the underbrush. "Stupid loser." She told him, giving him what he deserved. "Alright, get back to work." She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the Mustang's keys. "McGee, check the trunk." She gave him the keys. "No body touches the bodies until Ducky gives the all-clear!"

Tim moved around Tony who was still on his back near the back of the car and put the key into the trunk lock.

Tony was about to rock himself back into a sitting position when he spotted a little red light flashing on the underside of the car, below the trunk.

"Freeze, McGee! Don't move!" he yelled.

Tim did stop, and all the anger dropped from Kate from before as she watched Tony, they both did.

Tony jumped to his feet. "The car's wire to explode," he told them in all seriousness. "It looks like the detonator is tied to the trunk." He went over to Tim, who looked at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Tim was breathless, and freaked.

"How far did you turn the key?" Kate demanded.

"I'm not sure," Tim told them. "All the way, I think." He looked to Tony, his eyes wide.

"Okay, hold it. You don't want it to snap back," Tony told him gently.

"'Kay," Tim held it in place a Tony reached out and took the key from his grasp, holding it in place. 

"Go,"

Tim went to stand next to Kate.

He let out a breath. "Okay, both of you run." Tony told them.

"Tony, we're not going to just leave you here." Kate protested, tense.

"I'm a lot faster than you, I'll be right behind you." He snapped. "This is not a debate! Okay? This thing might be primed already,"

Kate and Tim gave Tony one last glance before they ran up the hill, in no way taking it slow.

"Anthony, you should have taken that extra week." Tony told himself, his muscles tight, ready to run. 

He had lied when he said that he was faster than the two of them after his brush with death. But he was the Senior Agent and this was part of the job. The only thing he knew, was that if he lived through this, he was not going to tell Claire. She had told him not to get killed on the his first day back, and he planned not too.

"It's the car!" Tim yelled to Gibbs who was close by as he ran onto the road, Kate right behind him.

"It's going to—!" her words were cut off as the car exploded in a fiery ball, throwing the three of them to the ground. 

Fiery car parts found there way up to the road, and Gibbs shoved a burning tire away before it could hurt the three of them. What had just happened?

Kate twisted around. "Tony!" she screamed, not seeing him. He couldn't be dead on his first day back.

The three watched as Tony’s groaning and dirty figure climbed up to the edge of the road of his hands and knees.

"Boss, remember when I said that I never felt better? I lied." Tony said, and then collapsed to the ground.

Today was not a good day.

XXX

"I'm fine." Tony said once again, around the thermometer that was sticking out from between his lips.

If his day hadn't been bad enough, now he had to get checked over by Ducky, it wasn't like he was the only one there, so why him?

"136 over 84, is not fine for you, Tony." Ducky told him, reading his blood pressure. "Your blood pressure is high."

Tony rolled his eyes. Like he would know if that were true or not. "Almost blowing up will do that to you," he said with sarcasm as Ducky took off the cuff from around his arm. "Not to mention hanging around Kate when she's in one of her moods." He looked at the woman who had her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring.

"This isn't funny, DiNozzo." She growled.

"No, it's not." He agreed with her as Ducky finally took the thermometer from under his tongue. "If I hadn't come to work today, you and McGee would be laying on slabs instead of those two."

The two victims, thanks to the explosion, were now multiple pieces of indiscernible crisped flesh.

"At least your temperature is normal." Ducky told him.

"Yeah, I'm good to go." Tony slid from the table. His weight touched down. "Unh." He grunted as his knees gave a little.

Ducky looked at him. "Muscle soreness?"

"Only when I move and breathe." Tony told him unhelpfully, but truthful.

"Cleary you haven't fully recovered from your bout of Y-pestilence. You need a rest," Ducky patter his shoulder.

"No," Tony disagreed as he pulled his sleeve down and grabbed his jacket. "I need to get back to work." He told them.

Kate scoffed and shook her head. "Damn it, Tony. I should just take you home and get you into bed."

They both looked at her with raised brows and as she realized how that sounded, she looked revolted.

Tony grinned at her. "Well, maybe if I wasn't with Claire, I'd take you up on that offer."

"Okay, that didn't come out the way I intended." She started in her defence.

"What didn't, Kate?" Gibbs asked, coming through the doors; though she was sure he heard.

"Oh, I was just— I just..." she fumbled.

"Kate was just expressing her concern over Tony," Ducky was nice enough to save her.

"Yeah. And how is he?" Gibbs looked to Ducky despite the fact that said Agent was standing right there.

"Stubborn, pigheaded, and unaware of his limitations." Ducky listed just a few.

"That sounds about right." Gibbs agreed, going over to where their victims were.

Ducky followed. "I'm not done with you yet," he muttered to Tony in passing.

"So, were you going to buy me dinner before, or just take me back to your place?" Tony joked.

Kate elbowed him as they went over to Ducky and Gibbs.

"Fortunately, the skulls have remained intact." Ducky told Gibbs.

"Unfortunately," Palmer spoke up. "We're having trouble figuring out what parts belong to whom."

"Yeah, I can see that, Palmer." Gibbs moved to the other slab and Ducky went over to the X-ray screen.

"The dental records were conclusive," Ducky said. "Passengers were: Navy Lieutenant Dean Westfall and Curtis Jansen."

"Well, that checks out. According to the car rental place, Westfall rented the Mustang a couple of months ago." Tony glanced at his notes.

"Kate, pull up their Service Records." Gibbs ordered her. "Have McGee find out who made that 9-1-1 call." He passed her.

"On it," she told him.

Tony sniffed, leaning against the sink for a little support but making it look casual.

Gibbs looked at him. "Tony,"

"Yeah," Tony cleared his throat and stopped leaning.

"Go lie down before you pass out." He order, going through the double doors and to the elevator.

Tony scoffed and wiped his nose as he sniffed, chuckling. "I'm not gonna pass out," he told the remaining three. "I might cry a little and maybe feel sorry for myself, but DiNozzos do not pass out!" he called back to them as he went through the autopsy doors and boarded the elevator with Gibbs.

"Can't you do something, Ducky?" Kate asked the doctor.

"Yes, I'm doing it right now." He told her.

"What?" she wondered.

"Praying," he whispered to her.

XXX

"You sure you're okay?" Tim asked as he leaned against the side of Tony's desk.

"Sure," Tony spoke up from behind his desk where he was now currently lying down— Gibbs told him to, after all.

Tim glanced down at him. "Not looking so hot."

"Well, at least that an improvement." He said.

"Over what?"

"According to Gibbs, I look like crap." He sighed, closing his eyes.

"You know, Kate was really worried about you." Tim told him.

"Kate worries about everything," Tony said.

"No. I mean worried, _really_ worried."

Tony cracked open an eye and looked at him. "What are you getting at, Probie?"

"Maybe... you know…?" he nodded pointedly.

Tony chuckled at that. "Me and Kate, it'll never happen."

"Why not?" Tim asked.

"She's too ethical for that," Tony told him.

Tim looked behind him as footsteps approached and he saw Kate. "You know what, you don't believe me, watch this." He whispered quickly as he stood up and turned as Kate sat behind her desk.

"Gibbs wants to know who made that 9-1-1 call this morning, Tim." Kate told him.

"On it," he gave her a smile.

Kate looked around. "Where's DiNozzo?"

"Uhh... I think he's laying down somewhere." Tim told her.

"Oh, good. He needs it," she agreed.

"You care a lot about him, don't you, Kate?" Tim asked her.

Kate looked up at him and watched as he gestured to Tony's desk and she instantly realized what he was doing. She grinned as she stood up. "Well," she chuckled. "He's my team mate. What do you think?"

Tony yawned as he listened.

"I don't know, sometimes I think it's more than that." Tim said.

"Tony? Are you kidding?" she asked.

"Come on, you never thought about it?" his eyes brows flickered. "Not even before he and Claire got together?"

"Well..." she gave a small chuckle as she took her water bottle in her hands and walked out around her desk. "I guess there are times when Tony can be charming, warm, not completely obnoxious." She came to stand next to Tim in front of Tony desk, who interest was now definitely piqued.

"Right." Tim agreed, his arms crossed over his chest. "So, if you weren't team mates, and he was available?"

"Oh, that's a tough one." In reality it wasn't. "He's smart, brave, not to mention kinda hot." She spoke as she unwound the cap of her water bottle.

Tony rolled onto his side, grinning hugely, ready to come up.

"You know, in another life I _could_ see myself marrying someone like him." She continued.

"Hm," Tim nodded as he watched as Kate leaned over Tony's desk and tipped her bottle over his head with a grin.

"Ahh!" Tony sputtered as water was poured into his ear. He jerked up to his knees and glared at the two of them as they chuckled. "Very funny," he told them, though he was far from laughter.

"Hey," Gibbs walked into the bullpen and Kate and Tim rushed to their desks. He looked at Tony behind his desk. "I thought I told you to lie down."

"I was," he said through his teeth. He opened his mouth pointing at Kate, ready to tattle before he clenched his jaw. "I am," he started to lie down.

Gibbs went to his desk. "Not here,"

Tony ground his teeth as his cheek twitched, glaring death at Kate who was still smiling at him. He pushed himself to his feet and stomped to the elevator, Kate waved at him and he hissed back.

XXX

Tony knew that when Gibbs said 'not here', that didn't mean for him to go home. He couldn't stand the empty apartment anymore, before he met Claire it hadn't matter, but now he hated the feeling. So he had taken the elevator down to Abby's lab. It was close by if he was needed, and he hadn't seen the Goth today yet.

" _Well, hey there little lady_." Tony said in a western accent in greeting.

Abby stood up from her place at the microscope, and smiled hugely as she spun around to Tony. "Tony, you're back!" she ran to him. "I missed you," and she all but jumped onto him, squeezing him tightly. He grunted with the force of it. "Oh, sorry." She quickly let go. "Did I hurt you?"

"I'm fine," he told her as she steadied him. "Just a little sore... from the explosion and all."

Her mouth was open with worry. "I'm sorry. Do you want to sit down?" she took his arm.

"What? Uh, I was kinda thinking about lying down next to your little fridge thing." He told her.

"Sure, sure."

As he laid down in front of the fridge, she went into the other part of the lab and grabbed something from the shelf on the wall that she was sure would make Tony a lot more comfortable.

Tony was already on the floor and about to lie down when she got back.

"Here, you can use Burt." Abby held the hippo stuffed animal out to him.

Tony took the stuffed animal and put it on the floor with a small chuckle, ready to use it as a pillow. He flopped back and as his head touched down on Burt, big flatulence sounded. Tony looked up at Abby with wide eyes.

"He’s supposed to make that noise," Abby laughed, smiling.

"Yeah," Tony wasn't to sure what to make of this. "You have a stuffed animal that farts?"

"It's cool, huh?"

"Yeah... in a disturbing way. So, what-what'd I miss?" he shifted, and Burt let another one loose.

Abby squatted down beside him, ready to give him the run down. She talked fast. "Gibbs has been really cranky since you've been gone— I think his knee's bothering him again. And, uh, Kate broke up with some lawyer guy 'cause he wasn't very good on the personal hygiene thing. Claire was like a Super Agent, Tony, you should have seen her. And Tim—"

"About the case, Abs." Tony interrupted her. "I got a glimpse of the bomb... it was definitely a pro job."

"You are correct, sir." She jumped down onto her back feet next to him, her pigtails splayed. "I've run ten samples. The main electric charge is C-4, each primed with det-cord and blasting caps."

"So, we should be able to trace the source of the manufacturer." He said and Burt farted.

"You'd thinks so... but no."

"Abby, every military explosive over the last twenty-years has had tags mixed in for identification purposes." He told her.

"Yup," she agreed. "But these don't."

"You tellin' me this guy made it from scratch?" he asked.

"Mm-mm." She shook her head, he hands clasped on her stomach. "The compositions are exact as if off the shelf."

"That's not possible. How is that possible?" he asked as Burt let another one go.

"It shouldn't be possible."

"Oh, it's possible." Gibbs said from above them.

Tony looked back, causing Burt to fart grossly. "That was the stuffed animal, boss." Gibbs didn't say anything. "Right, Abby?" he looked at Abby, Burt farted.

"What stuffed animal?" she said, smirking, and Tony looked betrayed.

"Abs," Gibbs grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Are you sure these explosives aren't traceable?" he asked, going to the big screen.

"Uh, so far." She told him, going to her computers. "But I'm still checking."

"What about the detonator?" he asked.

"Also weird," she put the picture on the screen. "The electronics are fairly simple, but there's no serial numbers on anything. It's like it's been sanitized."

"Let's go, DiNozzo." Gibbs walked from Abby's office quickly. "Someone's trying to kill us again."

Tony struggled to his feet, causing Burt to fart. "I don't think he meant that literally." He reassured Abby as he tossed the Hippo to her and followed Gibbs to the elevator.

She caught it and gave him a tight squeeze, somehow comforted by his loud bowel movement.

XXX

"Boss," Tim stood up from behind his desk. "Uh, according to State Police, the call was reported—"

"Anonymous?" Gibbs finished, leaning down on his desk, searching his computer.

Tim was silent for a beat. "Yes," he said finally. "And it was also u—"

"Untraceable." He said again.

"Yeah. They’re gonna send a copy of the tape over." Tim looked at Tony who had stopped near his desk. " _How?"_ he mouthed to the other Agent. 

Tony shrugged and turned to Gibbs.

"Kate, what do you know about the Lieutenants?" Gibbs asked.

"They're both Pilots, Gibbs." She told him, getting up from her desk and walking over to the Plasma that was behind Gibbs' desk, the remote in hand. She clicked it and the Service pictures for both Victims appeared. "Lt. Curtis Jansen was an instructor in Pensacola."

"What's he doing in Virginia?" Gibbs turned from his computer.

"According to his Unit, he was on leave visiting a friend." she answered. "Lt. Dean Westfall, also out of Pensacola, but for the last two months he's been T.A.D. at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland."

"Proving Ground?" Tim questioned.

"It's where they test new Military Equipment Technology, Probie." Tony told him slowly. "Maybe they used Westfall's prints to access the base."

"I checked, Tony." Kate said. "None of Aberdeen’s security systems rely on finger print or palm scans."

"What was he working on there?" Gibbs asked.

"Classified." Kate told him. He turned to her silently and looked at her with his icy gaze. "I will find out."

"So, what's going on, boss?" Tony wondered.

"Car didn't have any Military decals, the Lieutenants were wearing civvies." Gibbs said.

"And the 9-1-1 caller specifically said that they were Sailors." Tim reported.

"Someone wanted NCIS to investigate the scene." Gibbs told them.

"Why?" Kate asked.

"The same reason they rigged that car to explode, Kate."

"We were set up." Tony said in realization. "So, someone really is trying to kill us?"

"Yeah... and they came pretty damn close." That was what Gibbs left them with as he went up the stairs to speak to the Director in MTAC.

XXX

It was late and they had ordered takeout. Tim had pushed his chair over to Kate's desk and the two were chowing down, hungry from the long day's work. Tony, on the other hand was not, after almost being blown to little DiNozzo pieces and Gibbs confirming that someone was trying to kill them... again, well you could see why.

He wanted to call Claire, to hear her voice, but knew the only voice of hers he'd hear was from her voicemail. It just wasn't the same. If this was what not even 24 hours felt like, he did not want to know what five days did.

"You sure you don't want any?" Tim asked him one last time, glancing over at his team-mate.

Tony was leaning back in his chair, his ankles cross and feet propped up on the corner of his desk. It was as comfortable as one could get in his current condition. "No, thank you." He said.

Tim looked at Kate in concern. "Pass on free food." He said.

Kate raised her brows; that was a first. "Maybe he is dying," she spoke as if he weren't there.

"Well... I haven't had much of an appetite, Kate. On the account of having the pneumonic Plague!" he informed her.

"Yeah, Tony, I was there. Remember?" Kate returned. "That, and you bring it up every five minutes." She felt sorry for her best-friend, sure that Claire had to deal with this 24/7— she, herself could barely stand a normal working day.

"It's not every day you escape the dark clutches of the Black Death, Kate." Tony said in a disdainful tone.

Kate's lip curled in her disgust for a moment.

"It was a life changing experience," Tony finished.

"How so?" Tim questioned.

"Ask Kate, she was there." Was all Tony mocked.

"Hey," Gibbs snapped his fingers and pointed at Kate as he made a B-line for his gun. His trip to talk with the Director was over, and like from every return, Gibbs wasn't in the mood. "I want to know what Westfall was doing at Aberdeen by the time I get back."

Kate sat up in her chair. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Out." Was all he said. "McGee," Gibbs clipped his holster onto his belt. "I want other reasons why someone would chop off his hands." He said. "Tony," he grabbed the carton from Tim's hand and slapped it down on his desk, leaving Tim with noodles hanging from his mouth. "Eat something." And then he was gone, off to wherever Gibbs went to get the answers that he needed.

Tony's lips curled with unwillingness as he took the Tia carton.

Tim had quickly gotten over the fact that his food was taken away and cleaned up (Kate doing the same) as he stood in the middle of the bullpen, pacing lightly as he thought through his task out loud as Tony snacked on the rest of his meal.

"Why take someone's hands?"

"Trophies?" Tony spit-balled as he poked at the cold food with a fork.

"But why leave the other Lieutenant‘s?" Tim asked.

"If he's chopping hands off, I don't think that we can expect him to be rational, McGee." Kate told him.

The elevator dinged and turned to it; maybe Gibbs was back. But that wasn't it and it wasn't good. "We got trouble," he told them.

"What was your first hint?" Kate started with sarcasm...

And Tony finished with it... "The two dead bodies downstairs, or the explosion?"

"No." Tim told them. "I mean _FBI_ trouble."

The two Agents both looked at him before they glanced at the elevator and found Agent Fornell heading their way.

"Fornell?" Kate questioned, standing from her seat.

"We must be in worse shit than we thought," Tony muttered.

"Where's Gibbs," Fornell didn't even start with 'hello', there wasn't time for that crap.

"He's not here." Kate told him.

"Where is he, Agent Todd?" Fornell demanded, turning to her.

"He's out. Try him on his cell."

"I did. He's not answering." He told them.

"What's going on?" Tony questioned, setting down the food. If Fornell was here, it was nothing good.

Fornell was quiet for a moment as if thinking whether or not he should tell them. With the way things were, he didn't have much of a choice. "Ari Haswari is back in town."

Tony's feet dropped from his desk and he sat up straight with the news, Tim looked at Fornell with an open mouth. Kate, on the other hand, had a different kind of reaction— after all, she was the one that had been held hostage by the terrorist—twice.

"You let that psycho back in the State's without telling us?!" she demanded.

"He was supposed to be helping us uncover an al-Qaeda Cell in the D.C. Area." Fornell informed them.

"What do you mean _supposed to,_ Fornell?!" Tony was next.

"We now think he's here for more personal reasons..." and then Fornell dropped the bomb. "He's planning on killing Gibbs."

Now they really needed to find Gibbs.

XXX

"... please call me back." Tony spoke into the phone, slamming it down back into the receiver. He looked across the bullpen to McGee at his own desk, typing away. "That's the twentieth message I've left. We should look for him, McGee."

"Look for who?" Gibbs questioned as he walked into the bullpen from the back elevator and sat at his desk.

Tony and Tim were up from theirs and to his within seconds, breathing in relief.

"We've been calling you for the last hour, boss." Tony told him.

"Well, yeah. My ringer-thing got turned off." Gibbs dropped his cell phone on his desk.

Tony glanced at Tim before looked back at Gibbs. "You're never gonna believe who's in town,"

"Ari." He said simply.

Okay... "Or you will," Tony muttered.

"Fornell said that he was here— he's here to—" Tim started, his voice low.

"To kill me, yeah." Gibbs finished for him. "I know. I just had coffee with him."

They looked at him in silence for a moment.

"So..." Tony puffed out his cheeks for a moment. "What happened?" he asked.

Gibbs looked up at them like it should be obvious. "He tried to kill me,"

They weren't sure what to say.

"We find out what Westfall was doing in Aberdeen yet?" Gibbs asked them when they seemed to stare at him dumbly.

"Uh, boss, aren't you going to elaborate a little more?" Tim asked, really feeling like this was going over his head. He was sure that Tony felt the same way.

"Well, yeah, McGee, I'm alive!" he snapped. "Now tell me about Westfall."

"Uh, he was only attached to Aberdeen, he was actually working with the— an Aerospace contractor in Maryland called Danborn Avionics." Tim stumbled over his words a little.

"Doing what?"

"Testing Field Service Modules or something like that, I have no idea." Tony admitted. "The FBI sent a team over to the company to investigate their security."

"The FBI?" Gibbs didn't look too happy about that.

"A lot's happened in the last hour, boss." Tony told him.

"Where's Fornell now?" Gibbs knew that it would be him.

"He's in MTAC."

Gibbs grabbed his phone and tossed in in the air as he got up from his desk. "Make the ringer-things work." he said to McGee who caught it. He headed for the stairs with nothing further.

Tim looked to Tony. "Is it me, or did he take the whole Ari-situation-thing really well?" he asked.

Tony nodded and licked his lips. "That 'cause he's looking forward to it." He told him as he turned back to him desk.

"Looking forward to what?"

"To killing Ari," Tony said simply.

He watched as Gibbs talked to Fornell at the top of the stairs, he couldn't hear what was being said, but Gibbs didn't look happy. Today was crazy off the rails, and Tony was glad that Claire wasn't here to witness it. He hoped that she was better off visiting her mother than tangled in this mess.

XXX

After Gibbs talked to Fornell, he approached the Director, who, against his will, took him off the case and put him into protective custody. Kate's custody, actually. She used to protect the President, you know.

And Kate took this job very serious.

She had the blueprints of Gibbs' house and was showing Tim and Tony exactly what she wanted for his detail. "In his home, two teams, six hour shifts, alternating radio checks every ten minutes. Outside, I want a mobile foot-patrol and two permanent observation posts."

Tony glanced at Tim. "Gibbs isn't gonna like that," he told her with slightly wide eyes over the fact that she was going a little protective-overboard.

"Screw what he likes, I'm not gonna let that psycho within 5 miles of Gibbs." Kate told him straight out. She looked at Tim. "McGee, I need full audio and surveillance inside and out, everything tied into MTAC."

"You got it, Kate." He agreed.

"Go home," Gibbs told them, coming back from his visit with Ducky. He went over to the cabinet that was between Tony and Tim's desks. "It's late."

Kate sighed. "Gibbs, I don't think we're gonna be going home." She told him.

"I'm staying here," he told her pointedly as he pulled out some fresh clothes from one of the drawers. "I do not need an army of Agents staying up all night watching me build a boat." He slammed the drawer shut and went back to his desk, sitting in his chair and pushing himself in.

Kate didn't look to happy. Why couldn't he just be on board with this and make it easier? She licked her lips and looked at him. "You won't leave the building?" she questioned.

"If I do, I'll call you." He told her with mock head movement and a tad of annoyance. "Go. Go home, get some sleep." he shooed them. "In the morning we're gonna checkout Danborn Avionics, find out what the FBI missed." No body moved. "Go." He insisted.

XXX

It was late, it was silent, most lights were off, the bullpen empty of wandering Agent. Gibbs sat behind his desk, going back over the pictures that were taken from the crime scene before it blew up, trying to see if there was any link to Ari. He could find none.

He pressed a key on his keyboard rather hard, and the screen turned black. He was finding this rather frustrating. He got up form his seat, a cold coffee in his hand as he walked the bullpen, watching his team.

Tim had fallen asleep upright in his chair, his chin against his chest and his suit jacket as a makeshift blanket as he snored softly. Tony, he was asleep with his feet up on the corner of his desk, leaning back fully in his chair, his head hanging at an awkward angle with one of his magazines open on his chest and a half eaten pizza on his desk. He looked to Kate last. He didn't see her in her chair and he stepped closer to her desk. She was behind it, on the floor, laying on her side and a scrunched up jacket as pillow.

Gibbs squatted beside her, a soft smile on his lips as he looked at her. He reached out and pulled the small blanket over her shoulders before he gave them a short rub. He turned from her and walked to the window with a heavy sigh. He looked out into the night filled city, it looked beautiful on the surface, but in those shadows was the one that he seeked.

XXX

It was early morning and the lights were turned on, this early, only a few Agents wandered about. Tim had gone out for some coffee, and Tony watched as Kate slept. He had some ideas of how to wake her, but maybe now was not the time. He squatted next to her and reached out, but before he could touch her, she jerked awake, gasping.

"Gibbs!" she jumped to her feet and looked to his desk, remembering what she had seen in her dream— his throat slashed.

"You dream about Gibbs?" Tony asked her.

"What?" Kate shook her head and looked at him. "God no." She told him, tucking a lock of mussed hair behind her ear as she tugged up her white jeans. She wasn't able to help but look back at his desk, he wasn't there, Ari didn't cut his throat.

"You just said his name." Tony pointed out.

"No, I didn't." She protested.

"Yes, you did."

"What's going on?" Tim asked, back from his trip with four coffees.

Tony looked at him. "Kate was dreaming about Gibbs." He said.

"Oh," Tim looked rather intrigued as he stopped at Kate's desk next to Tony. "What was it about?"

"No. I-I didn't dream about Gibbs. Okay?" she said through her teeth, noticing that Gibbs was here.

"She gasped his name," Tony told Tim.

"Really."

Kate sighed in disgust at them, pushing passed Tony to get to Gibbs. He was behind his desk, starting to slip on a shirt over his undershirt. "Look, if you want to check out the Defence Contract with the Company today, you're wearing a vest." She told him with a smile as she held said vest out to him.

Gibbs stopped putting on his shirt. "I can live with that," he told her, taking the vest from her. He started to put it on.

"That's the whole point, Gibbs." She said.

XXX

The team went to Danborn Avionics as a whole and found out that Westfall was the Military Liaison for Danborn's Modular UAV Project. It was an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that was being developed. It could be reconfigured for different missions in the field. Missions like reconnaissance, nuclear and biological agent testing, and ground attack. Some day, it could be used as a weapon, but currently, it was just a prototype.

They found out that there was only one UAV there, and it was under construction. And Kate had been right in her checking, the company did not use print or palm scanners for anything, and Westfall's codes were taken from the system and all the rest were changed. But something else in the company used a palm scanner. Their Radio Flight Control Biometrics used them, only Pilots were entered into the system, something that both the victims were.

So Ari was not after the UAV.

But Gibbs discovered something else. Target Drones. Danborn Avionics didn't start making them until the 1970s, the were relics, in operational. But there was one missing. One would need a team of engineers to get it operational and a Radio Flight Control. Lieutenant Westfall's was missing.

The team made the obvious assumption that Ari was going to load to Drone with explosives. Abby informed them that the total range of the Controller was about 40 miles. The payload would have to be pretty small if they wanted to get it off that ground. So, their target was a soft target... people. But it wouldn't be hard to destabilize the system, Abby had the operational frequencies— another Controller could jam the first. The only problem was the it had to be within a 40 mile radius of the other.

Tim pulled the security tapes from Danborn Avionics and got on tape three guys rolling out one of the Drones from two nights before. They were all in black and wore masks. But one of the guys on the tape, he stopped to rub his left shoulder and he looked rather familiar— even with the mask. Gibbs had shot Ari in that same shoulder a few months back. 

That was Ari, and by the looks of it, he wasn't trying to locate an al-Qaeda Cell.

Gibbs called in Fornell. It seemed that the FBI checked no further than the UAV, and instead Ari had been tricking them this whole time. It turned out, that the FBI only had an encrypted cell to locate Ari. They called the phone and Ari picked up. They started a trace.

He was in a cell phone grid thirty miles out of Norfolk, in the Newport News area. They got it down to a two block radius. They suited up with comms and vests.

Gibbs drove and Tim was left in charge of the second Radio Flight Controller, something that he was going to have to learn how to operate on the fly. Five Warships were returning that morning from overseas, but that wasn't the target, the pier was going to be packed with families, all present to welcome home the Sailors.

Gibbs stopped the car in the middle of the street, surrounded by several warehouses. It would take hours for them to search them all and by then it would be too late. Gibbs had a different idea though. He took a shotgun, cocked it, and then opened fire into the air. That definitely got some attention.

On a warehouse in front of them, a guy stepped to the edge of the roof with an automatic weapon in hand. Gibbs shot him down before the guy could make a move and that was what started it all.

Kate was with Gibbs on the move into the building while Tony took the fire escape, Tim was left on the ground by the car to start jamming. The Drone fired. When the three got to the roof, they killed one guard and the guy that was at the Controller. McGee came under fire and his Controller was shot, killing his chance at jamming the Drone. Gibbs sure as hell didn't know how to work the Controller that was on the roof, and so much like him, he shot it, breaking the connection with the Drone, it crashed harmlessly into the water. The guy that was shooting McGee was gone.

Everyone was reloading on the roof, when the guy that was shooting McGee came through the rooftop door.

Kate was the one that saw him. She dropped her gun. "Shooter!" she shouted and as he brang up his gun to shoot Gibbs who had his back turned, she leapt through the air as he fired.

It hit her and she went down.

Both Gibbs and Tony spun, shooting the shooter multiple time, he fell to the ground, dead.

"Kate!"

They ran to her, and rolled her onto her back. Her eyes were closed. Gibbs jerked down the zipper of her NCIS jacket to expose her vest where the bullet lay embedded.

"You okay?" Tony asked her.

"Ow!" Kate groaned. "I just got shot at point-blank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?" she told him, grumpy.

"Think you'll be going to palates class tomorrow?" he smirked down at her.

Kate just groaned again. They pulled her up.

"Protection Detail's over, Kate." Gibbs told her, picking the bullet from her vest.

"You did good." Tony grinned.

"For once," Gibbs said. "DiNozzo's right."

Kate chuckled. "Wow. I thought I'd die before I ever got a c—"

BANG!

Kate's body jerked as a small, rounded hole appeared on the center of her forehead and blood splattered across Tony's face. She didn't make a sound but the _thump!_ that accompanied her still body as she came down on the roof. Red blood leaked from the back of her head and spread around it in a pool. It almost looked like a halo. Her eyes were still and open as they stared blankly up at the clear blue sky.

Tony and Gibbs looked around themselves frantically, searching the roofs of the accompanying buildings for the shoot, but found nothing.

" _Ari."_ Gibbs whispered the name, knowing that was the culprit.

Caitlyn Todd was dead...

Gone...

She was never coming back...

...If only they knew the truth.

tbc! In the next chapter.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last part was a hint to the Supernatural side of things. And if you were missing on Claire, don't worry, she's coming back in the next chapter!


	19. Hearts in Half - Part 2 of 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team is still reeling from Kate's sudden death, and Claire is dealing with her own tragedy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Kill Ari (part 1). Includes: spoilers and conversation taken directly from the episode with alternate twists. Special appearance by Dean Winchester and Castiel from Supernatural.

Tony adverted his gaze from his bloodied reflection in the men's bathroom mirror, he couldn't look at himself, not while he was covered in Kate's blood.

" _Kate. God, Kate."_ His voice broke with emotion.

He was overwhelmed. He tightened his lips and he quickly turned the taps on and furiously splashed water onto his face, before he rubbed his face with paper towel. He didn't stop until his skin felt raw with the attention. At least he felt something; Kate wasn't going to feel ever again.

He crumpled the soiled paper towel and threw it roughly into the sink. He took a few deep breaths for a moment, his grip hard on the edge of the sink. Droplets fell from the tip of his nose and Tony wasn't sure whether they were water or they were his tears of grief for his friend and partner.

Finally he allowed himself to look up at his reflection. He was pale, but you could barely tell for the fact that his skin was stained pink from Kate's blood. Something horrible welled up in his throat. At first, he thought that it was a sob and tried to force it back down. He had to keep himself together for the others. But he soon realized, that as it burned in the back of his throat and nose, that it wasn't a sob at all. Tony scrambled for the closest bathroom stall, the door banging into the wall as he retched powerfully into the toilet.

Nothing came but spittle and phlegm and he was left breathless and panting. He sank heavily to the floor and leaned back against the metal section that separated the stalls. His knees came up to his chest, his head lowered into his crossed arms a top his knees.

If he was dealing with it this way, he wondered how McGee would be. The younger Agent was more sensitive. Abby, he knew, would more then likely be hysterical with sadness at the loss. And Claire... She just lost her best-friend. He had never seen her deal with a loss before, and he wondered if he could be strong for her.

Claire... Claire didn't even know. Tony realized this just now with a certain type of horror, mixed with something that may have been akin relief. If she didn't know now, then he had the time to think of a way to soften this mournful blow.

He sighed. And wondered not for the first time, how _he_ was the one that had to be strong.

This was one of the worst day's of his adulthood.

XXX

Claire's breath left her aching ribs in forceful puffs. Her forehead was covered in a layer of sweat as blood trailed down her temple and hot tears cascaded down her bruised cheeks. She was on the floor, trying to fight through her feelings on what she had to do, and whether or not she was going to be able to go through with this.

Her mother was dead, and a demon was controlling the old woman's deceased body.

Claire Novak had seen a lot of things, done a lot of things and been through a lot of things... but this **—** this was something that she wouldn't be able to get over. She wanted to pray for Castiel to come and save her once again, or for Dean to come out of the woodwork Hunter-style. But for any of that to happen, it would have passed already.

After her first encounter with a Demon, via in her mother as she was tied down to a chair at the age of thirteen, she had done research as any sane person may or may not do. She still wasn't sure if maybe she did have a psychotic break and Dean, Demons and Angels were rather lucid hallucinations or not, but she found the incantation that sent Demons back to their maker. Of course, she was thirteen back then, and hadn't encountered a Demon up until now, but the situation was dire and it wasn't as if she had a gun or a knife that killed them for good!

She propped herself up against the wall, the one that was closest to her and the one that had the least blood. At the moment, the Demon inside of her mother wasn't paying attention to her, and instead the other unhealthy head-cases that were in this place. It was so loud, the crazed screaming, the crashing and breaking, snapping of bones, the maniacal laughter that followed it. There was nothing she could do for these other people, right now, she had to think about herself and her own survival, as horrible as it sounded. She had to think about getting herself back to Tony.

The Latin words fumbled through Claire's mind with the adrenaline and panic in her veins. She needed to calm herself the hell down, or she wouldn't be able to do this and she would get killed. She had been in situations like this before. She'd been in fire fights, car crashes, she'd seen dead bodies and rotting corpses. That's all that this was, she reasoned. Her mother was dead, and all that was left was a mutilated body.

A sob was fighting its way up her throat painfully and she squeezed both of her hands over her mouth to keep it inside. Remove all personal connection, remove it, rip it away, shove it down. _It's not there anymore_ , she told herself. And it wasn't. This thing was not her mother anymore, it wasn't. Probably hadn't been for a long time.

It hurt. She had no family anymore. She was an only child. Her father was gone with Castiel. Her grandparents were both dead. And now her mother. No big deal. None...

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, trying to kill the despair that was inside of her, threatening to overwhelm her. Her ears started to ring loudly, muting the horror that was going on in another room down the hall and her eyes snapped open as water rained down on her. She couldn't help that gasp as she was soaked to the bone. Looking around she realized that the fire alarm was triggered.

Claire wasn't sure whether one of the workers or the patients had pulled it, or if it was triggered by an actual fire; either way, the police were on their way. And when they got here, the Demon was going to kill them as well. She couldn't have that, there was too much death around her already.

She nodded, determined. She gathered her feet under her, and ran the Latin words through her mind once more. She could put her mother's body down, and send the evil sucker inside of her back to where it belonged **—** it would have to do for now. Then, she would let the fire consume this place and let all of the evidence burn with it.

No one could know about this. No one out of the Hunters' Circle. Of course, she would have to inform Castiel and Dean **—** it seemed that the Demons still saw her as a target of opportunity.

One last deep breath, and she charged into the war zone. No mercy! None was afforded to her, so she would give none in return.

XXX

It had been a day since Kate died, and the rain still came, mirroring everyone’s sorrow. They found the perch that Ari had used, though they had no evidence, they all knew. He had held Kate captive twice before. The stranger had waged war on the wrong people. Kate was still down in autopsy, and she would stay there until her funeral that would take place at the end of the week; an officer's burial.

Tony had been to visit her. And when he looked down at her; her body still, her skin gray, the red hole in her forehead. And he felt things claw up inside of him, claw at the underside of his skin. Memories of the three short years that they spent together. Things that he said to her; the nice, the mean, the sarcastic. And the things that he never got a chance to voice; the things that he'll never even get to think of. He swore that he could see her everywhere, like she was trying to reach him beyond the grave.

He scoffed. "If anyone could do it, you're stubborn enough, Kate," he whispered, a sad smile gracing his lips. He looked down at her for a moment longer before he pushed the drawer back in, taking her from sight. It was always cold in autopsy, but it seemed extra cold tonight.

He needed to go home, he needed to sleep, but knew that he wouldn't.

He had tried calling Claire. He couldn't get through, and leaving a message seemed out of the question; he didn't want her to hear about this from a voice message. He tried to call the hospital where her mother was staying, but couldn't seem to get through there either. He couldn't get a hold of her, he didn't know where she was staying; she might as well have been off the grid.

He wanted to go home, to take a shower and let his mind wander until the water turned cold. Kate would never shower again. He tried to eat, but only got a bite or two down before he couldn't anymore. Kate would never eat a fast-food burger again, or Tai food or pizza ordered to the office late at night. And he wanted to curl up in bed with Claire but he knew that she wouldn't be there, so he knew that he'd take her pillow and hug it to his chest, and breathe in her scent and it would almost be like she was there with him, if not in body, then maybe in spirit.

And Kate, she would never stop sleeping.

XXX

Claire sat in her car, in an abandoned parking lot a few blocks from the burning hospital. She could see the blaze from here, and hear the sirens from all three companies, even the local news reporters would be there as soon as their bloodhound noses caught the scent. Many people were able to get out; patients, nurses, doctors and visiting family members. She'd been able to disappear in the middle of all the chaos and panic.

She'd been able to banish the Demon back to Hell from her mother's body. Everything was a rush in her mind. She didn't have time enough to give her mother a proper goodbye before she had to make sure that there was nothing left of the woman's body. She knew that the statements that the police were going to get would be to crazy and unbelievable **—** especially since this was a mental institution **—** so she wasn't sure what this would be chalked up to. She didn't want her mother to be credited with this horrible act **—** especially when she was a victim in all of this as well.

This whole situation was fucked. She beat her steering wheel with her fists and screamed and cried until her throat was sore and her voice gave, and she just cried after that. She cried at the feelings that she had towards her mother before she came here. At the fact that this whole time, she'd been talking to a Demon about her relationship with Tony. She cried about how the last time she had seen her mother was two years ago, and they had yelled at each other. And she felt all the guilt at having all these regrets with her mother. And knowing that she'd never be able to tell her mother that she loved her.

It took nearly an hour for her tears to dry up. And for a little, she just sat there, composing herself before she prayed to Castiel. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and prayed to the Angel that took her father's body.

There was a _whoosh_ of air in the car, and then there was three instead of one.

Dean and Castiel both appeared in her backseat. She didn't turn to look at them.

"Claire?" Dean asked.

Claire looked at him through the reflection in the rear-view mirror. "Do you see that," she asked, jerking her chin in the direction she wanted him to look, "over there?" The blaze was still going, even after all this time, the night sky still danced with the red of fire.

Dean looked, and so did Castiel with a cocked head. His brows furrowed. "Is that... fire?"

Claire nodded stiffly, her lips pursed tightly as she gripped the steering wheel for control **—** whether it was anger or sadness, she wasn't sure. "Do you want to tell me why Demons are still after me?" She said through her clenched teeth.

Dean's eyes snapped from the glow of the fire to the back of her head. "What?" He said in shock.

"Any Demon that knew of your existence was eradicated." Castiel spoke up.

"Well, you missed one!" She barked in anger.

"Claire, what the hell happened?" Dean finally demanded.

Claire took a deep, harsh breath. "I was visiting my mother at the hospital. I was there for hours, then her eyes flashed black. She was possessed by a Demon the whole time I was there **—** and God knows how long before. It attacked me, and then started to kill other patients and doctors. I banished it back to hell, and then set the hospital a-blaze."

Dean's eyes widened for a second before they narrowed. "You did what?"

Claire didn't seem to hesitate, she was numb, for now. Though her emotions had been flowing like a waterfall back at the hospital, every action she took had been logical. "I spoke the incantation and sent the Demon from my mother's body. Afterward, I needed to cover it up. All those that the Demon didn't kill, escaped from the building **—** I made sure of it **—** and then I set the place on fire. The flames will get rid of all the bodies, as well as any documentation that I was there, or anything that the cameras recorded."

The car was quiet. Finally the orange in the sky was fading as the firefighters finally got the fire under their control. She hoped that what she had said about destroying the evidence was true **—** no one would believe the patients and she was sure the doctors too **—** but she knew that this dark cloud would always follow her, same as the cloud from her childhood; they folded together to create a bigger cloud.

Claire glanced at Dean in the mirror, and it was hard to read his expression. She thought that she saw surprise in his eyes, maybe respect and residues of guilt from the past. It didn't matter to her.

"Just thought I'd catch you guys up." She said sombrely.

Dean looked at her for a long moment. "I'm glad you're okay, Claire." He locked eyes with her for a second, before he looked at Cas and jerked his chin. Castiel touched him, and Dean vanished. Of course she knew that the Hunter meant physically and not mentally.

The Angel stayed behind. Claire watched him. He didn't say anything, he looked sad if anything. And then he reached out and petted the back of her head, and then vanished.

Claire couldn't stop the gasp that left her. The action had been so much like her father, as he had done such many times over when she was a child. A single tear escaped from the corner of her eye, for her lost father, and maybe even Castiel **—** for she knew that he hadn't meant to take her father away like this.

She took in a shuddering breath. She was alone again. She gave the dead fire one last look before she turned the key in the ignition. She drove back to her hotel room. When the door locked closed behind her, she didn't bother with the lights and walked through the dark to the shower. She let her soiled and damp clothes drop at her feet and stepped into the tub. She wasn't sure how long she stood under the spray, her head was blank, and she only stepped out when the sudden cold of the water shocked her out of it. She barely had the mind to wipe herself down **—** and didn't even bother to comb her long golden locks **—** and climbed under the covers.

She didn't sleep though. She laid awake, in the quiet, alone. She knew that she should probably do some Demon-warding or something, but she couldn't bring herself to move anymore. The shock had finally set in, and she let it. She didn't want to feel anything, she didn't want to move, she wanted to do nothing, become one with the darkness. The pit of her stomach was empty as she hugged her knees to her chest. She wanted Tony to hold her, she wanted to be safe in his arms. But he wasn't here, and he'd never know the real trauma that she suffered on this day.

The fire would be all over the news, everyone would know about it by morning **—** even Tony in Washington D.C. if he bothered to watch the news. They would either believe it was an accident, or that one of the patients had set it **—** she hoped that it was either of those two, that no one would remember her being there. In the morning, or maybe even the next day, she'd get a call about her mother's body. She'd go to the police station, answer any questions that they might have, then go the morgue and identify her mother **—** if that was possible anymore. She'd take her body and bury her here, saying goodbye forever. She'd go home, kiss Tony and hug Kate, thankful that she wasn't completely alone and she'd hold their hands forever because she'd love them forever. She wasn’t going to let them go, she wasn’t going to let them be taken away like her parents.

XXX

Tony had finally stopped trying to call Claire; she wasn't answering her cell, or her room phone, he couldn't even get through to the hospital. So he decided that he'd now throw himself into finding Ari just as Gibbs was.

XXX

Kate...Kate had worries of her own. She was dead, of course, that was obvious **—** She was staring down at her body right now where Ducky had it laid out on the autopsy table as he had just finished her autopsy. Ducky gazed down at her sadly, his breath pluming from his mouth in a frosty cloud—it was always cold in the autopsy but tonight it seemed especially frozen.

"I appreciate you keeping me covered in front of the others." She said to him quietly. If she ignored the fact that in was her on the table between them, it almost felt like any other day. "Especially Tony." She said as an after-thought, just to lighten the mood, even if he couldn’t see or hear her, it comforted her.

A small smile briefly touched the doctor's lips. "Yes, I know how modest you are." He told her.

Kate eyes widened in shock. Had he heard that? There was no way! She looked at him intently, but he wasn’t looking at her, but _her_ body. Her shoulders slumped. "Were." She sighed deeply. "I'm dead now, Ducky." She shot a glare at her body; her stupid, dead body. "Shouldn't be. I could have killed Ari right here. In autopsy." She groused.

Ducky was looking at her body curiously, talking to her like he did all the others, but this seemed more real, like he could actually hear her replies. Despite himself, he was curious, and found himself leaning closer to her. "Why did you hesitate?" He wondered out loud; he never got the chance to ask her and figured now was as good as any.

Kate thought back on that day, and it was a moment before she finally replied. "His eyes. There was something in his eyes that made me not wanna kill him."

Ducky shook his head in confusion at the still face before him. "His eyes were ice to me." He murmured.

Now it was Kate's turn to peer at him curiously, but their moment was interrupted when the doors slid open and Gibbs strode in. Ducky quickly covered her body. She stood back and watched the two for a moment.

"Ari fired into Abby's lab." Gibbs cut right down to it.

"Good Lord." Ducky murmured, his 'conversation' with Kate forgotten.

"It had to come from across the river in Anacostia Park."

"Was Abigail hurt?"

"No, she's only shook up. Tony's with her."

The rest of the conversation sort of faded out as she heard everyone was alright, and Kate remembered back to when she had talked to Gibbs and Abby, too.

Kate knew that she had to be rough with Gibbs. He would be punishing himself about this and she believed it was the only way to get through to him.

He was gazing into the darkness out the big windows in the squad room from his desk, looked out into the pouring ran without seeing much, but remembering. Her empty desk forever in his line of sight, as he felt the coldness of the night seep into him.

"Why me, Gibbs?" Kate asked, standing directly in front of him, still in her white jeans, vest, and NCIS windbreaker, a hole in her forehead. That was how Gibbs saw her now, so that was how she seemed to appear. And unlike Ducky, he seemed to see, though she knew he believed it was just in his head. "Wasn't stopping one bullet enough for you?" She pointed to the bullet still lodged in in the vest.

Gibbs shook his head, still not looking at her. "I—I don't know."

"You don't know?" She pushed, leaning over his desk so that they were now eye-level, face to face. His breath plumed but he didn't seem to notice. "Come on, Gibbs, what's that famous gut telling you? Why did I die instead of you!" She shouted, before she was pulled away.

Pulled away to Abby's Lab. She was a mess, not her usual self. Her hair was down and a mess, her mascara was running dark down her cheeks from many tears shed, and her lips were pink and clean. Kate appeared different to her than to Gibbs. Wearing a straight, long blond wig. A black dress that touched the floor, with long sleeves and shoulder-less.

She took a complete one-eighty.

"You're a mess, girl." She claimed, her hands planted on her hips. "Red eyes. No makeup. If ever there was a time for black lipstick, it's now."

Abby smiled a little and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Sitting up straight, she looked at her dim reflection in the off computer screen and started to apply her black lipstick.

Kate walked over and peered at her through the reflection. "Remember when we first met? I couldn't believe you were a forensic scientist. I thought Goths had bats for pets and vice-versa."

"I really liked you, Kate." Abby sighed sadly, her breath cold as her eyes welled with tears. "A lot."

"Don't start that again." Kate chided her softly. "Where are you pigtails? I love you in pigtails." Abby started to tie her hair back up as Kate suggested. "That's more like it. You were persistent, Abs. First, the dark lipstick. Then the black nail polish. Next thing you know, I have a tat on my bum. Oh, God. Ducky's gonna see it." Kate started to chuckle and Abby couldn't help but too. "I'm dead and I'm embarrassed." And that was how she left Abby, laughing as she vanished away.

Kate came back to the here and now, with Gibbs and Ducky. She sighed. Soon, she was gonna see Tim and Tony. But who she really wanted to see was Claire, her best-friend. She knew Claire was with her mother, but deep in her heart—her un-beating heart—that she what the hell was happening to her right now, and how to fix this.

XXX

This was the third time that in two days that Tony had nearly died. First was the car bomb, next was the shoot-out on the roof, and now it was the sniper in the Lab. Yesterday morning was his first day back after his bout with the Plague, and Claire had tried to get him to promise to not get shot on his first day back. He hadn't been able to verbally confirm it for her, but he guessed in the strictly speaking, he did keep it. He hadn't been shot on the first day, after all, but instead had nearly been blown to pieces—he guessed that was worse in the long run—but he had done as Claire had asked. And today, he was still keeping that promise—he'd been shot _at_ —several times—but not _shot._

But now, as he sat at his desk, almost alone in the bullpen, with the gray morning sun barely coming through the rain-streaked windows, he felt a chill pass over him as Gibbs and the red-headed Director walked passed him and he saw Kate leaning against her desk across from him. He saw her as he'd last seen her, with a red-hole in her head. She flickered, and she now appeared in a school-girl uniform—the kind he always pictured she wore when she went to Catholic School. She seemed so real, so solid, like she was still alive.

Kate looked down at herself and couldn't help but feel the familiar disgust. "Your mother should have washed you mouth out with soap. Gibbs leaves with a woman and you're only thought is: nooner."

"Was not." Tony said, looking at her face, and not her exposed legs in that short, pleated skirt.

"Was too." Kate disagreed. "I've always known what you were thinking, Tony."

Tony shook his head, and Kate flickered once more. And now she was how she had always been, and how he'd always think of her. In a pair of smart creased slacks and a blouse. "I miss you, Kate." He blurted.

Surprise crossed her expression before softening. "I know, Tony."

"I just—I can't believe you're gone, Kate. I mean... Claire, she doesn't even know. I can't reach her—what am I supposed to tell her, Kate? What?"

"The truth, Tony. We both love Claire and we know how strong she is. She’s been through a lot, both of you have. But you have each other now. You'll stop Ari and you'll be together."

"How could you know?" Tony couldn't help but ask. "I'm just dreaming, how could you know."

"Because I do, DiNozzo. And you're not dreaming."

"Yeah, I am. I know I am. Otherwise, how could I be seeing you, you're dead. And must I referred back to uniform?" He asked, and Kate flickered, clad once more in school-girl clothes.

"Don't be disgusting, DiNozzo. I'm still dead and you're still with Claire!" She exclaimed.

Tony felt devilish, briefly like his old-self. "Sometimes, I used to picture you naked."

Kate sent him one last glare and vanished.

Tony started. Not awake, because apparently he hadn't been. It had been so real. But there was a woman standing right there, looking at him with a bemused expression. "I'll call you back!" He claimed, hitting a button on his phone—making it seem he had been having a conversation on speaker-phone. But he got the ring tone instead. Great! He quickly recovered and pressed the button again, before turning to the dark-haired woman with a visitors badge clasped to her jacket. "Hi."

She walked further into the bullpen.

"I was just—" he started, not knowing how he was going to finish the sentence.

The woman finished the sentence for him, "Just having phone sex?"

"Phone sex?" Tony laughed nervously, detecting a slight accent. "No. No. Uh, charades."

"Charades?" The woman questioned as he tried to lean back casually in his chair. "Like, uh..." she made a film motion.

"You've played." He agreed.

She cocked her head. "Never on the telephone."

"Yeah." He agreed—what'd he have to say charades? He couldn't back out now, though. "My partner and I were coming up with quotes for Saturday night."

"You play charades of Saturday night?" She inquired, trying to suppress a laugh.

"To kill time before I go clubbing." He just seemed to dig himself deeper. He shook his head; what was he doing? "Who are you?" he asked, finally getting down to the real issue here, not his seeing-his-dead-partner shtick.

"Ziva David," she answered, and flashed him her credentials. "Mossad."

"You're Israeli?" Tony tensed. Just like Ari.

"Very Good. The way you made that connection. Mossad, Israeli."

"What can I do for you, Ms. David?"

"Nothing." She told him. "I'm here to see Special Agent Gibbs."

"How do you know I'm not Gibbs?"

She chuckled, as if it was the funniest thing in the world as she dropped the bag from her shoulder and sat in McGee's chair at the desk next to his; Tony twisted his chair around and watched her. "Gibbs." She said clearly, reaffirming what she wanted.

"He'll be back in an hour." He told her. "Are you sure I can't help you?" he said sarcastically.

She tsked—actually tsked at him, she had some nerve. "I don't think so."

Tony looked at her for a long moment; he needed to get as much information from this woman as he could before Gibbs got back. "We got off to a wrong start." He said, standing up and walking the short distance over to her. "I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. I wasn't playing charades. I was remembering my partner." He couldn't help by glance back over his shoulder at Kate's now vacant desk.

David looked at him with furrowed brows. "Naked."

"No. Yes, I—No. I have a girlfriend. Look, I'm not the only man who does it." He tried to defend himself, but towards this woman, he wasn't sure why. He was a mess right now. He really needed Claire, if not to see her, then to at least talk to her—but he didn't even have that.

"Oh, women do it to." She said slyly, looking him slowly up and down. "With handsome men." Tony looked at her in shock. Had she actually just said that, but he knew that when she checked him out he couldn't deny it. He sat back at him desk. "And occasionally with women."

"Now you're teasing me."

David chuckled at his reaction. "Didn't you're partner tease you?" she asked.

Tony tensed once more, on guard. "Not about sex." He said, remembering. "Kate was kind of puritanical." That's what made it so weird that she and Claire were best-friends.

"Sorry." David said awkwardly.

"But it didn't matter." Tony defending haltingly. "I wasn't interested in her. We were partners." He watched as she took the bandanna from her head, and released the pins from her long, dark hair, letting it curl around her shoulders.

"She wasn't attractive?"

"She was," he agreed. "But not to me. Like I said, I have a girlfriend."

She nodded like she didn't believe him. "Then why did you picture her naked?"

Tony chuckled without humour and wagged at finger at her. Why was he telling her all this anyway? It was none of her business and it was going to stop now. "Ms. David, you can sit there and slouch provocatively for an hour if you like, or you could tell me what you need and maybe I can help."

"You can't help," she claimed, getting up from McGee's chair and striding around to the front of Tony's desk. "because I am here to stop Special Agent Gibbs from killing a Mossad officer."

Now Tony was paying close attention, sitting up straight in his chair. "Ari Haswari?" He asked, incredulous. She couldn’t be serious. He killed Kate! But it seemed that she was.

"Yes." She agreed, pushing the loose hair from her face.

Tony's jaw tightened in anger, as he crooked his finger in a signal for her to lean closer. She did so. "I'd wish you luck, but I want that bastard dead too." He sneered.

David stood back up straight and pursed her lips in response as she stared down at him.

Tony didn't care about her. He cared that Kate was dead, and he and Gibbs were gonna find and kill Ari themselves, and this woman, this _Mossad_ Officer thought. He would Avenge Kate for himself, and for Claire. It was going to happen, it wasn't a matter of if, but when. Gibbs better get back soon, before he shot this woman, who never seemed like she was going to leave. He tried to ignore her, but she kept talking and wandering around his desk.

"You're from a wealthy family."

"Really." He ground out, flipping through a folder, but not seeing the contents.

"Born and raised on the East Coast. New England Boarding School. Spent some time in the Midwest. And Philadelphia."

"How could you possibly know that?" He demanded, giving in like she seemed to want.

She just smirked at him as the elevator dinged and Gibbs finally returned, with Director Shepard as he had left with. He vaguely wondered where they'd gone.

" _Shalom_ , Jen." David turned to the other woman like she knew her, which apparently she did, though Tony didn't have a clue how.

Tony quickly got up as the two women conversed and went over to Gibbs at his desk, where he was taking off his coat and putting away his gun.

"You first," Gibbs told him quietly.

Tony replied just as quiet, "Ziva David. She'd here to stop you from whacking Ari. You?"

"Director Shepard. Same mission." Gibbs said.

Tony was incredulous. "Seriously?" he asked.

"Yes."

Tony scoffed at that, and Gibbs gave him a look. "Yeah?" He said nervously, knowing that if the Director and David weren't there, he would have gotten a head-slap.

Finally the two women walked over.

"Special Agent Gibbs," Shepard said. "Ziva David, Mossad."

"Ziva." David greeted, holding out a hand. Gibbs shook it coldly. "Director Shepard has spoken often of you."

"Really." His reply was bland as he looked at Shepard.

"Ziva and I worked antiterrorist ops together since 9/11. You saw one in MTAC today." Shepard explained.

"That was yours?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva shrugged. "I only acquired the Intel." She smiled secretively at Shepard. "Excuse me," she said as her started to ring. She walked to the windows and answered it in Israeli.

Tony was eyeing Shepard.

"Yes, I really did work antiterrorist ops." Shepard said, seeing the look.

Tony just nodded. She gave him a look before going upstairs, Gibbs followed her and Tony was left alone once again with Ziva, and whoever she was having an intense conversation on the phone with.

By the time she was finished with her call on the satellite phone, Gibbs and Shepard had come back down.

"Miss David, whose balls get cut off if Ari is not a Mossad Mole, but a terrorist?" Gibbs questioned as he strapped his gun on.

Ziva went back to McGee's desk to get her bag. "Mine, I suppose." She answered, tense after her phone call. "Since I'm his control officer."

"Ah. They promote control officers young in Mossad." He observed.

"Have to. The good ones are dead at your age." She replied with humour.

Gibbs looked at her. "Do you know how I located Ari's terrorist cell?" He was talking, of course, about the cell that got Kate killed.

"GPS fix off his encrypted cell phone. He wanted you to know the terrorists' location, so you could stop the missile instead of him, which would have blown his cover."

"Only an NSA satellite can GPS an encrypted phone. Ari didn't know I had that asset."

Ziva chuckled in derision. "You give him less credit than he gives you." She turned to him. "Who hung up first? You or him?" Gibbs silently looked at her, and she knew that it was him who had hung up first. "Ari knows a fix takes 19 seconds." Both Tony and Shepard watched the pair tensely as Ziva walked to Gibbs' desk. "When Sharon visited Bush, Ari's Hamas Cell kidnapped Agent Todd. Why didn't he kill her instead of freeing her to warn the Secret Service?"

"I don't know. Why don't you arrange a meet and he can tell me?" Gibbs growled in return.

"Ari Hawari is a Mossad operative undercover in Hamas." Ziva turned to Shepard. "He hasn't turned on us or you. He didn't kill Agent Todd." She said firmly, and Tony glared at the back of her head in disgust.

"Gibbs," Shepard said as the man sat. "Even if you're right, we owe them proof."

"That's all we ask." Ziva agreed. "Don't kill the wrong man."

"Like Mossad did in Norway?" Gibbs returned icily.

"That mistake cost us dearly!" Ziva snapped quietly, her hand slapping the desk.

"Not as dearly as the Palestinian waiter you killed." Gibbs snapped back.

Ziva looked aghast as she looked at Shepard before turning and snatching up her bag.

"Ziva, assure your deputy director that even though Ari Haswari is a suspect, no action will be taken unless we have evidentiary proof." Shepard said quickly. She waited for Ziva to nod, before turning to Gibbs. "Proof before action."

Gibbs glared at her with cold eyes before leaving the bullpen. Tony quickly left too, while both women had their backs to him, he already had enough to deal with, he was not going to face the blow-back of Gibbs' departure.

Tony knew there was trouble when Gibbs confronted him in the elevator.

"I want you on Ziva's ass." Gibbs told him.

Crap. "She's not really my type, boss." He replied without thinking.

Gibbs head-slapped him. "Tail her."

"I knew that," he winced.

"She'd been in contact with Ari. That's the only way she could know I hung up on him."

"I don't want you to get pissed—"

"I thought you wanted me pissed." Gibbs returned.

"I did. It was kind of weird when you were being nice. Not that you're not nice. I mean—"

"Will you spit it out, DiNozzo." He snapped.

"What if Ziva's right and Ari knew you'd trace the call?" Tony blurted. He didn‘t know what was wrong with him, what the hell he seemed to be saying. "Maybe he wasn't the sniper."

"She is right." Gibbs said, much to the younger man's surprise. "Ari wanted me to raid the warehouse. He set me up. And it cost Kate her life."

Tony stopped him from leaving the elevator. "Is he a mole or a terrorist?" he asked, confused.

Gibbs turned back to him. "Whatever works to play his game."

"If Ziva leads me to Ari?" Tony questioned.

"Shadow him and call me." He gave his Agent an obvious look.

"So you can bring him in?" he wouldn't give it up, and he didn’t know why.

"Yeah. So I can bring him in... to Autopsy."

Tony was silent as he finally let Gibbs leave. He was glad that his boss was such a badass, hard-ass, which ever was your preference. As he rode to the garage, he found himself dialling Claire's number, and just listening to her voicemail, before hanging up, just to hear her voice one more time before he got too deep into his tail.

tbc! in the next chapter

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you enjoyed the update. It was a very emotional one with Tony and Claire dealing with there respective deaths.


	20. Hearts in Half - Part 3 of 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ari continues to play with the team, while Claire puts her mother to rest only to walk into another tragedy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Episode Tag: Kill Ari (part 2). Includes: spoilers and conversation taken directly from the episode with alternate twists. Brief appearance by Dean and Castiel. Smut for Tony/Claire.

Gibbs had put the whole team on complete lockdown. No one left NCIS HQ, and if need be they did, they were to be escorted by a protection detail. Ari was trying to kill them all, going down the list from the women ( ~~Kate~~ , Abby and Director Shepard), the men (McGee, Ducky, and DiNozzo), and his ultimate finale would be Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Kate was more frustrated about her death at this moment, than before. She was hanging around her body, she wasn't sure if she wanted to (which she was sure she didn't even when it was tucked away out of sight in a drawer), or if that was the rules now, her body was her anchor, and she'd always be pulled back to this place. But that didn't matter because when Ducky got a call from Gerald (who was being held by the bastard that killed her), her gut—ghost-gut, whatever—twisted. And there was nothing that she could do about it as the doctor hung up, and left HQ without escort. 

Gibbs was going to blow a gasket

xxx

The day after the blaze at the MH Institution, Claire climbed from the bed in which she had lain but never slumbered, and tried to make herself look presentable for the authorities after the horrors of the other day. She had intended to visit her mother everyday that she was here, and she had to keep up the appearance of not knowing the tragedy that had struck. So she showered and dressed, applied makeup to give some colour to her features and not look to be a ghost and tied her long, blond hair into a high pony.

She breathed calming breaths as she slipped on her light jacket and grabbed her purse, before locking her hotel room, and getting into her car. She drove slow. She found that she had to park two blocks away as the building was surrounded still by at least one fire truck and ambulance, and several police cars, several news vans and camera crews. The area was taped off, and crowded around it gawking civilians as well as family members of the patients and doctors. Claire slowly wove into the crowd, inching towards the tape in a unobtrusive manor until she was right behind the yellow tape.

It felt odd, usually she was on the inside.

"E-excuse me officer?" Claire's voice broke as she spoke. She paused for a second to get her roiling emotions in check and tried again in a clearer voice. "Officer?"

The cop passing stopped and looked at her. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, I'm not allowed to say anything." He started to turn away but Claire touched his arm, stopping him.

"My mother was a patient here," Claire told him quickly. "Is she still alive?"

The cop's features softened at this. "What was her name?" he asked.

"Amelia Novak,"

He wrote it down in a little notebook. "The persons alive were taken to the hospital, you can check for your mother there."

Claire nodded and quickly melted back out of the crowd and back to her car. The thing was, her mother wasn't alive. She probably hadn't been for a while before last night. But that was one thing that she could never truly be sure of in the end of things. Had the Demon killed Amelia? Or did it keep her alive so that she could watch as she killed her own daughter and a bunch of other people? Claire supposed that in the end it really didn't matter, the end result would always be the same—she was dead. But Claire went to the hospital anyway.

It was hectic, the ER was busy with injured patients from the Institution, but there was a list posted of all the people that were alive and currently in hospital care. Amelia was not on the list. The people that died in the Institution were taken to the Morgue. That was where Claire went next, where she knew since last night that this was were her mother would be.

The Demon had killed eight other patients, not including her mother. Four of the families of the decedents had already been called to come down to the morgue to identify the bodies. Claire waited, her arms wrapped around herself tightly as she sat on one of the unoccupied chairs in the hall, with two other families. Already they were crying, not knowing what they were going to see in that room, but knowing it was going to be horrible and change their lives.

Claire knew what she was going to see in that room. Her mother—dead. She had purged all her emotion for the moment last night in her car, and later in bed, in the darkness of her hotel room. She knew that it would hit her again, later. But right now she just needed to see her mother one last time, no matter what condition she may be in, before she put her away for good.

It was almost two hours before she was called in, the two families that were already here, were called in first. She could hear their cries and exclamations as they identified their loved ones, and were holding each other up as they left. The mortician called her in, and she walked into the morgue stiffly. It was so much different than Ducky's morgue at NCIS HQ, but she didn't care about that—she was just trying to distract herself from the real issue here. On this table, under this white sheet, was her mother's body.

She took several deep breaths before she nodded to the doctor and he folded the sheet over at her shoulders, revealing her mother's face. Her eyes were closed, her hair still damp from the autopsy, and the Y-incision peeked up from under the sheet, along with some burns. This was not the first body that Claire had ever seen—her first body had actually been when she was thirteen, and Jimmy had killed their neighbours as one of them held a knife to her throat and called her a bitch, saying he was going to gut her like a fish. But it was always different when it was someone you knew, loved—someone who gave birth to you.

"That's her," Claire finally said, her voice breaking. "That's my m-mother, Amelia Novak."

The doctor covered her body once more, and handed her a clipboard to sign saying who the body was, and who identified her, as a well as a sheet for cremation. The doctor said they would call when the ashes were ready, and Claire left her cell number. She sat in her car in the parking lot for a moment, and tears quietly leaked from the corners of her eyes. She closed them, breathing deeply, until the tears finally stopped.

She drove back to her hotel room.

She ordered room service, something light just so she could tell herself that she ate something today, turned the television on, the volume low, and curled on the bed with the curtains closed, the only light coming from the TV. And she listened to the many messages that Tony had left her on her cell phone. He asked all the usual questions, was vague about the case he was working. It was all very normal, very mundane except there was something off about the whole thing—there was something in his voice. Yes, it quavered ever so slightly when he replied that everything was going fine—if she hadn't known Tony so well, she never would have detected it. But it was there. And it didn't settle well with her. Or maybe that was the food she ate with no appetite. Whichever it was, she forced herself to stop re-listening to the messages and cleared her inbox. She needed to deal with her mother before she took anymore weight onto her shoulders.

She laid there for a while longer, just doing nothing, letting the fact of her mother in the morgue just sink in until she could breathe with the concept. Finally she sat up in bed, and turned on the bedside lamp. She took the phonebook from the drawer of the nightstand and leafed through the pages until she found the Great Seeds Funeral Home. Years ago, when her grandparents had died, and when her mother's mental health was healthy, they had bought plots next to one another in Starting Point Graveyard. It was a family plot. She booked her mothers service for tomorrow afternoon, the day of her cremation.

It would just be her, and a priest.

xxx

The funeral home called Claire in the early morning to tell her that her mother's ashes were ready (the fire had been deemed accidental so her mother's ashes were released). She didn't have anything funeral-appropriate in her suitcase, so she had to go out and by a dress. Afterward, she went to the funeral home for her mother's ashes, and then off to the service.

It was sad that she was the only going to be present. Her grandparents were dead, her father was gone—and under normal circumstances, she knew that Tony would be on one side of her, and Kate on the other. But it wasn't a normal circumstance.

The sun was high in the sky, and she knew that hers was the only service today. The other families would take their time grieving, and as harsh as it sounded—she just wanted to put all of this behind her—put her mother to the rest that she deserved after everything that she had been through.

She listened as the Priest read a vaguely familiar verse from the Bible, and she was absorbed in the good memories of her mother (before she was twelve), she was startled when a breezed kicked up and she was no longer alone. She looked from Dean and Castiel on either side of her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked them, her surprise was great.

"We couldn't let you do this alone, Claire." Dean told her earnestly.

"Your mother was a great woman," Castiel said in his rough voice.

Claire nodded in agreement as she looked at the Angel. Amelia _was_ a great woman. She had been a good mother, and despite their differences, they had cared and loved for each other very much. Her mother deserved a great farewell. So Claire didn't question how they knew when the funeral was today, or wonder how her life was going to be now. She just settled in this moment, though her father couldn't not be here himself, he was here in spirit. And she took Dean's hand and Castiel's hand in hers, and held tight as the Priest prayed her mother into her final resting place. They weren't Kate and Tony, but they were a fair substitute.

And she prayed herself; for her mother, and father, even Castiel and Dean, and hoped that the man that she loved, and the best-friend that she loved, were fairing better—because the messages that left something important unsaid that Tony left, worried in the back of her thoughts and heart and stomach.

xxx

Tony had been tailing Ziva all night. Currently, she was at the Ebesaro Hotel, doing laps in their pool. He was glad it was late, and no one was out and about, because they'd probably call security if they saw him peeking through the entrance window at her. What else was he supposed to do? And despite his personal feelings, and despite that fact that she wore a one-piece, swim cap and goggles, she was still pretty hot—in a she's-the-enemy sort of way.

He was starving, and had to go pee, and of course he couldn't.

"Excuse me."

Tony was startled. He jerked around to find a very hot woman staring at him oddly. She had long, wavy dark hair, clad in a tracksuit with the jacket zipped up halfway, and a Star of David around her neck.

"May I?" she gestured at the door he had been peeking through.

"You certainly may." He moved out of her way.

She smiled at him as she passed, he held the door open for her. This was what he was waiting for. He closed the door, and watched her disappear into the ladies locker room. He took out his cell, and dialled Gibbs.

"Hey, Boss."

" _What is it, Tony_?"

Tony ignored the impatient tone as he told Gibbs about the woman with the Star of David.

" _I don't believe in coincidences, Tony."_

"I know, Boss. You beat that into me." He agreed.

" _Haven't I beaten that into you?"_ Gibbs questioned.

Tony paused and glanced at his phone in confusion. "That's what I said."

" _What did you say?"_ Gibbs' voice buzzed in his ear.

"I said the reception sucks." Tony snarked.

" _Stay with them."_ Gibbs ordered _. "I'm on my way."_

 _"_ What if they split up?"

" _What about your gut?"_

"It wants pizza." He snapped his phone shut.

He went back to the door. The girl was back from the locker room in a similar outfit to Ziva's except red, she hung her robe next to Ziva's despite the many hooks available.

"Mind if I joined you?"

"One more lap and you can have it to yourself."

Tony took pictures of the girl as the two struck up a 'conversation'.

"How's the water?"

"Lovely." Ziva replied, climbing out of the pool. "Have a nice swim."

"Thank you." Ziva disappeared into the locker room and the other woman slipped into the water.

Tony snapped more photos, this time of Ziva as she took the other woman's robe instead of her own, and then headed his way. He whipped around and quickly dove for the janitors closet across the hall. He made it by the hair of his balls. He held his breath, fearful with reason that the Mossad Officer might actually hear it. And counted five Sexy-Claire's before he remerged. He quickly went back to the door, peering in at the woman. The two women had switched robes, he needed to see what was in the pockets. Gibbs would kill him if he didn't.

He waited until she was underwater, and rushed to the hooks. She had seen him before, and he needed to act like he belonged there without being suspicious—but of course with a DiNozzo flair.

He got to the hooks and hung up his coat next to Ziva's former robe and quickly fished through the pockets. In the right, an envelope of cash, American. The left, a passport, with a picture of Ari.

"Hey." The woman called, finally having noticed him. "What are you doing?" She demanded, wading her way over to the edge of the pool.

"Going for a swim." He quickly told her, to prove it, he took off his light jacket.

"There's a locker room." She told him, climbing from the pool.

"No, I'm fine." And pushed his jeans down to his ankles—thanking God that he put underwear on this morning instead of going commando—before grasping the edge of his tee and pulling it off overhead.

"Where's your swimsuit?" she questioned, walking over.

"Don't have one." He shrugged, grinning, snapping the waistband of his boxers as she slipped on her robe.

"I should call security." She told him.

Tony chuckled nervously; that was the last thing he needed. He needed to think quick, he was already this far, he might as well go the whole mile—he was just glad that he had been on this tail alone. "You didn't see the sign."

"What sign?" She superstitiously put her hands in her robe pockets.

Tony glimpsed this. "Remember I was waiting outside and you wanted to come in?"

"Oh, I remember."

"Hackensack Nudist Society." He blurted, and now he went the whole mile. "Form 10:27 to 11:51, the pool is ours. And it's our third annual convention." Just then, two heavy-set hotel guests walked in in robes, and he figured, what the hell. "Here's Agnes and Agnew right now. He's our president and Agnes is our social secretary." They just looked at him in confusion. "Hey, guys. You look funny with clothes on..."

"Inventive. Funny even." She laughed sarcastically. "But I'm married." She went into the locker room.

"So am I." Tony called after her. As soon as she disappeared, he yanked his jeans back up and grabbed his shirts and jacket, and ran out of there—shirtless, his jeans barely staying on his hips and his ass hanging out.

He rushed putting his clothes on as he dialled Gibbs.

"Can you hear me?" Tony asked, as he came outside into the rain.

" _Across the street._ "

"Boss?" Tony looked around, but there were a bunch of cars.

" _Here_." Gibbs flashed his lights and Tony quickly spotted him.

"Gotcha." Tony hung up and jogged across the street, and jumped into the Dodge. "Ziva slipped a phoney French passport and some cash..." he reported instantly, sniffing as this mouth-watering aroma filled his nose. "... to the woman with the Star of David I told you about." Gibbs reached into the back seat and handed him a pizza box. Tony gazed at him for a moment. "I love you, Boss." He said seriously, opening up the box and gabbing a piece.

"How'd you know the passport was phoney?" Gibbs asked.

"Ari's photo but not his name." Tony took a huge bite of the slice, it was cold, but still delicious, he hadn't eaten anything all day.

"What name is he using?" He took out a small notepad and pen.

"Don't you first wanna know how I got it?"

"I assume you improvised like a good Agent should."

"What an improv!" Tony agreed around a mouthful of pizza. "I swear to God I could get a gig on _SNL._ Okay, get this. I pretend I'm like this really goofy guy trying to get—"

"Pretend?" Gibbs interrupted in a withering tone.

Tony looked at him, startled as he swallowed. "That hurt, Boss."

"What's the name?" Gibbs demanded, ignoring him.

"Well, the—" Tony started, taking a big bite of the pizza.

Gibbs grabbed his arm, and glared at him. "The name?" He repeated.

Tony extracted the un-chewed piece from his mouth. "René Saurel." He stated clearly. "S-A-U-R-E-L."

Gibbs wrote the name down. "Description?"

"All I saw was the name and the photo." Why would Gibbs ask for a description? They already knew what Ari looked like. Then he realized too late what he really meant.

"The woman." Gibbs growled.

Tony winced. "About 5-foot-9, dark hair, blue and white jogging outfit. Big gym bag. Real pretty girl. Looked enough like Ziva to be her sister. Real pretty." He said all the things he remember in rapid succession, all the while chewing pizza and by the time he was finished, he was out of breath.

"Maybe she is." Gibbs replied as he wrote. "Mossad's like the Mafia, one big happy family." He called McGee on his phone. "Hey, McGee. I've got a passport alert. Ari's traveling with a French passport under an alias, René Saurel. Sierra. Alpha. Uniform. Romeo. Echo. Lima."

" _Okay, what alert category?"_ Tony heard Tim reply.

"Terrorism."

"On it."

Gibbs hung up.

"That ought to get customs' attention." Tony remarked.

"Well, let's make sure he doesn't get that far." Gibbs replied.

"Boss, that's her!" Tony gestured with the pizza slice as the woman who had met with Ziva at the pool, left the Hotel wearing the same jogging outfit and carrying the same gym bag.

"Stay with Ziva." Gibbs ordered.

"What if this girl's meeting Ari?" Tony asked the obvious question. "I mean, you're gonna need backup." Gibbs gave him a tight look. "Let me rephrase that—"

"Out." Gibbs told him.

Tony instantly packed it in and jumped out of the car. "Thanks for the pizza, Boss." He said as an after thought.

"Thank the night shift. I swiped it from them." Gibbs started the engine and sped off after the taxi that picked up the mystery woman. As he followed the woman, he spotted Ducky's Morgan. He cut the old car off and as much as he might have hoped that it was Ari in there, he was relieved to have discovered Ducky instead.

…

The rain hadn't stopped, and Tony parked himself at the Hotel entrance under the slanted canopy with his cold pizza. He nearly devoured the whole thing, when Ziva appeared next to him as he yawned.

"Espresso?" she asked, holding out the Styrofoam cup in her right hand, taking a sip from the second cup in her left. "Take it, it's not a bribe."

Tony groaned internally. "How long did you know I was--"

"Following me?" she finished for him, a imperceptible curve to her lips. "Since I left the Navy Yard."

Tony grimaced internally this time as he shifted the nearly empty pizza box on his hip where the was leaning against the edge of the wall. Either he was that bad, or Ziva was that good; no way was he believe that she was that good. He scoffed. "I don't think so."

Ziva looked amused at his denial. "Blue sedan. You laid behind a white station wagon for a while, then a telephone van. You lost me at the traffic circle on--"

"Okay, okay." There was no point in trying with pretence anymore, it was too humiliating already. "You knew."

She held out the cup to him again and he had to admit that it was tempting even if there was the possibility that it was poisoned. "Take it." He was damp and cold and the pizza had already been cold by the time it got to him. "It's chilly out here." He knew that it was just a general thought and not her reading his mind, but it bothered him nonetheless.

Tony looked at her pointedly and leaned towards her, reaching across for the cup in her other hand. There was nothing wrong with this one.

She grinned at his antics. "You shouldn’t feel bad. I was trained by the best."

"You know, that's what I like about Mossad." He pointed at her with the cup before he drank some of the hot liquid with the triple-shot of caffeine that he desperately craved.

"Our training?" she wondered.

"Modesty." She chuckled at this as he stepped from the safety of the roof entrance and into the rain to the trash can that sat there on the sidewalk.

"Uh, there's a slice in there." She told him pointedly.

He made no comment as he put the square box at an angle in the circle hole and extracted the last piece and slowly carried it over to her back into the dry-zone.

She took the slice with a small smile. " ** _Boda_** ,"

 _" **Prego**_ ," he returned and watched as she ate the cold slice of rained-on pizza like it was 5* restaurant quality.

It reminded him a bit of how Claire ate, a bit like him but with more quality; that was one of the things that he loved about her. He was then reminded of Kate as he was reminded of Claire and he felt sick to himself. He had actually forgotten about Kate who was killed by the man that Ziva was trying to protect right next to him, just a couple of days ago. His partner's body was still in the morgue and he forgot about them both while chatting and dining with the enemy.

Ziva looked hesitant, shooting a couple of glances his way as he silently brooded and remembered how angry he was when she had to go and say, "I lost my little sister, Tali, in a Hamas suicide bombing. She was 16 and the best of us. Tali had compassion."

Despite himself, he said, "I'm sorry." He never had any siblings, older or younger, so he didn't know what that felt like. But maybe he did, Kate was like that to him, a sister—or more like a step-sister because he would always wonder what she looked like naked.

"After Tali's death," she continued, "I was like Gibbs. All I wanted was revenge."

"Is that why you joined Mossad?" she had drug it out of him, he couldn't help but wonder, remembering what Gibbs had said back in the car about Mossad being like the Mafia.

"I was Mossad long before Tali's death. Old--"

"Family tradition?"

She swung her head to him. "Israeli sense of duty." She finished.

"So, come on. Who recruited you?" he couldn't help himself. "Father? Uncle? Brother? Boyfriend?"

She smiled as she finished chewing another bite of pizza. "Aunt. Sister... Lesbian lover." She murmured.

He leaned back and chuckled. "You're good. You almost got me off the question. Almost."

"I volunteered." She finally answered him. She gave him a look and smacked her cup down on top of his, almost making him drop them both and turned back to the motel door. " ** _Lae la tol,_** " she mused, sending him a small smirk before she disappeared back inside.

" ** _Gweno notche,_** " he replied to the closed door in wonder and shame.

xxx

Kate found that other than the fact of being dead, being dead really did suck. There was more to it, there had be, than just being stuck here like this where she was still seen, but not really. What had been the whole point of all those years of Catholic school, of all those times in Church and Prayer, if they lead to nothing but this? She just couldn't believe that. Maybe she was still here on Earth, to make sure that her team, her friends, could get through it. And that was why she found herself up in the bullpen with Tim.

"Why haven't you come to see me?" she wondered as he gazed at her sadly. She gave a dramatic sigh. "I'm so lonely, I'd even welcome a visit from Tony." His expression didn't change as he continued to stare at her.

"McGee!" Tim spun around to Abby, closing the drawer on her as it was.

xxx

Gibb pulled across the street outside of Jenny's brownstone. Kate was gone, but safely tucked away in the morgue. Abby was much the same, Tim would keep an eye on her at NCIS. Tony was still tailing Ziva. And Novak, she was safe from all of this in a completely different city, oblivious to all that was going on from what Tony had told him, she was currently unreachable—and maybe for now, that was for the best, one less person's life weighing on his already loaded shoulders.

He got out into the rain; the last few days, that's all it seemed to do. He paused on the empty street when his cell rang. "Yeah, Gibbs."

" _We got Ari's_ \--"

"Slow down, McGee. Take a breath. Start with the address." He told his agent, pinning his cell between ear and shoulder as he got his small duty notepad out. "Seven, two, four. Tango. Julia. Alpha." He repeated. "Got it." He hung up and put his notepad back away and looked back over at Shepard's apartment. All the windows were dark but for an upstairs one. He leaned his ass back against the front of his Dodge and started dialling his phone again, thinking better of his earlier judgment, letting out a chuckle as he did so. Despite himself, this was going to be fun.

" _Shepard_." She answered.

"I need a partner for the night." He told her. "You up for it?" There was a rather long silence on the other end and for a second he thought that she might have hung up. "Jen?"

" _Jethro_ ," she gasped a little. " _Don't you know any other women_?"

"None I can call for back up." He heard her exhale on the other end and suddenly realized, rather amused, that something got lost in the phone connection. "You didn't think I meant--?"

" _That's what you have a whole team of Agents for_." She told him sharply.

"Well, McGee's on protection duty with Abby. DiNozzo's tailing Ziva. Since I lost--" He started to explained to her, clearly this time, or so he thought.

" _DiNozzo’s what_?" she demanded, interrupting him.

"He's tailing Ziva." He repeated.

"Well, where are you?"

"Outside." He said, just as clear so there would be no misunderstanding. He watched the window and saw her part the curtain, even at this distance he could see the sexy silk negligee that she was wearing. He wiggled his fingers at her in case she didn't spot him.

...

"What are the chances that Ari is still at this house?" She wondered as Gibbs drove at his usual speed on the rain-slick roads to the address that he had gotten from McGee on the truck that Ari had been driving, tying her long amber hair in a pony-tail. As much as he would have liked to see her up close in that purple silk, he was fresh out of luck as she changed into a green-grey sweater, dark pants, and a jacket, with her badge and gun.

"Zero." He told her. "Ducky was a diversion, so your friend Ziva could pass cash and documents to him."

"Ziva's a control officer doing her job." Shepard replied. "You'd do the same if the roles were reversed."

"She's using you, Jen." Gibbs returned, how could she not see that?

"And I'm using her." She put his fear to rest. "A half dozen Hamas suicide bombers will not be blowing up our boys in Iraq because of _Ziva."_

"She's Metsada, isn't she?" he said rhetorically with a scoff.

"The Mossad code name for that division is Komemiute." She corrected him.

That didn't matter. "Whatever they name it, they specialize in assassinations."

"Excuse me," her tone implied incredibility. "Weren't you a Marine sniper?"

"If I have to go through your friend to get Ari, I will." He told her firmly, he wasn't going let this bastard get away with killing Kate and trying to kill the rest of his team.

"Ziva knows that."

He sighed and turned back to the road. "You really do like her."

Jenny looked at him. "She's damn good... and I owe her. She saved my life in Cairo two years ago."

At least that was something that Gibbs could be thankful for as of late.

...

Gibbs parked the car on the opposite side of the street from the house, and a little down, just out of reach of the pooled light of the streetlamp ahead, the rain finally seeming to come to a stop. Was this the sunshine finally shining through the clouds?

"I can't believe this," she scoffed mildly in the silence as Gibbs looked at the house through a pair of binoculars. "I've been a director for a few months and already I'm back on the street."

"It's great, isn't it?" He grinned over at her.

"No, Jethro. It isn't." But there was a curve to her painted lips anyways.

"Come on. Come on." He poked at her. "You love it."

"Truthfully? I'd rather be in bed." He straightened in his seat and looked at her with great interest; this time there was no phone line for their meanings to get lost in. She saw his look. " _Sleeping."_

He gave a small sigh of bitter defeat, but that didn't mean he didn't have one last ounce of fight in him. "Remember that stakeout in Marseille? August." He looked back out into the dark streetlamp lit street without the binoculars this time; the house was dark, quiet. "Stuck in that attic with no air, photographing everyone who boarded that Lebanese trawler." He cocked his head to look over at her again, but she wouldn't meet his eyes, despite the amused look on her face. "That second night, that was the first time that we--"

"Okay." She stopped him, putting her hand over his mouth and he couldn't help but smell her perfume. "Shut up." She finally looked at him, feeling the curve of his lips against her palm. His ice-blue eyes seemed to twinkle for a moment before she took her hand back and they both sat back in their seats, quiet for a moment.

Gibbs looked back through the windshield, and made the wipers swipe across the misted rain that obscured his view, peering over the steering wheel— **s** eeing the dark vehicle parked right there. "Hand me the binoculars."

She straightened, suddenly alert at the tone in his voice; she knew that tone. She quickly handed him the device and he peered through them. "What?"

"That's Ari's SUV." It had the same licence that McGee had given to him not too long ago and tinted windows.

He handed her over the binoculars and pulled out his Sig., checking the clip as she found the truck herself. The driver's side window started to roll down and in the streetlight she saw the barrel of a rifle. "Shooter!"

They both reacted instantly, ducking for the center consol just as the shot fired. Gibbs made sure that he was on top of her, shielding her. "Stay down." He told her, quickly starting the car, and putting it into drive. He kept her down as he raised his head just enough so that he could see and stepped on it, driving right for the parked SUV. Another shot fired, going through the right side of the windshield an inch from the first one.

Gibbs kept going, but no more shots were fired as the shooter jumped out from the other side of the truck and started to make a run for it. Gibbs ran the car up onto the sidewalk behind the truck, just missing Ari. Both him and Jenny got out of the car, weapons up, just as Ari turned and got a shot off before the pair pumped him full of lead.

Ari hit the ground and they rushed towards him, weapons still ready in case he was wearing a vest again. Gibbs kicked the rifle from reach and Jenny covered him as he crouched beside the downed man. He turned the body over and the artificial light reflected on his face.

"I expected Haswari to be older." Jenny commented.

Gibbs cursed. "He is."

This wasn't the bastard, this wasn't over yet.

xxx

Claire couldn't stand to be here anymore. In Pennsylvania. It was where she went to university, it was were she put her mom so that they could be closer while she moved on with her life, but Amelia was stuck in the past. Though no being alone for her funeral had helped, she wanted Tony and she wanted Kate, she wanted to know what pain lined the undertone of Tony's messages, the ones that he had stopped leaving.

xxx

It was like the world kept moving, but Gibbs was stuck standing still as the days went. It was Ari, but everything said that it wasn't.

What a sly bastard.

...

"...Gunshot number three is located un the right clavicle. Appears to be a distant sound from the absence of sooting and stippling. Gunshot number four is located sic centimetres to the left. Appears to be a distant sound from the absence of sooting and stippling…"

...

"It's a miracle, boss. He was shooting to kill her, not you. Just like he did with Kate and Abby. It's funny how he always went for the women. Not that I'm implying that he should have shot at you--"

...

"You won't like this, Gibbs. All of the .308 full metal jacket rounds recovered from the shooting came from the Bravo-51 rifle dropped by the sniper you shot last night. The same rifle that killed Kate."

...

"Two years ago. Mohamed Esfiri was a home-grown terrorist. Born in Cleveland. He was an ardent follower of a radical imam who promised--"

...

"Since Miss Scuito confirmed that the sniper rifle that we recovered last night was the weapon used to murder Special Agent Todd, and with no evidence to the contrary, it appears that Mohamed Esfiri was the sniper…"

...

"... I believe that it's safe for your team to go home, Gibbs." Shepard informed him in the bullpen, the whole team gathered, minus Kate, plus Ziva (who stood a little ways off).

Gibbs made no answer and Shepard waited one more moment before she addressed the rest of the team. "Special Agent Todd's funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon in Indiana. SECNAV has offered us his private jet to fly there. Go home. Get some rest."

None moved, but instead looked to Gibbs. He finally looked at them, giving an imperceptible nod and slowly they dispersed. The funeral was tomorrow and Claire still didn't know about Kate, Tony had continued to try and get a hold of her, but still hadn't prevailed.

Shepard gave Ziva a look and she too, left, before turning back to Gibbs. "What about you, Jethro?"

"Mohamed didn't kill Kate and he didn't shoot at Abby." He told her straight off.

Shepard sighed, her arms crossed over her chest; this had to stop. "You are not infallible, Jethro, no matter what your gut is telling you. Ari isn't trying to kill you, but this obsession might."

"Hey, Jen?" he wondered softly, leaning forward on his desk.

"What?"

"Why did he only shoot at your side of the car last night?"

"I suppose you were right." She allowed. "He was trying to kill women who work with you."

"How did he know you were in the car?" he demanded, standing up. "I called you at the spur of the moment. I parked in the dark. He couldn't see through our windshield even with a scope. That guy was sent to die, not kill."

"No." She shook her head, adamant. "No one's going to do that."

"Come on, Jen." He murmured. He started around his desk and to the front elevator. "Hamas suicide bombers blow themselves up all the time. It doesn't matter how a they die as long as it's for jihad." He stopped at the elevator and turned to her. "Mohamed last night, he died for rivers of honey and 72 virgins." He slapped the button impatiently.

Shepard slowly came over to him. "I'm not saying you're right," she allowed. "But if you are, how do we prove it?"

Gibbs inhaled in relief as the elevator doors slid open. Finally, they were getting back on track. "We? Did you just join my side?" he stepped into the elevator.

She followed him in. "Jethro, I've always been on your side." He looked at her. "What do we do?"

"Kill Ari before he kills me."

He pushed the floor button.

The elevator doors slid closed with a certain finality.

xxx

She had burned the dress that she had worn to Amelia's funeral, it needed to be done. She had packed her suitcase and checked out and drove all through the night and the closer she got to Washington, the more and less burdened she seemed to become. It was pouring rain and the sky was turning dark again by the time she pulled into her and Tony's apartment parking lot next to Tony's own.

She carried her suitcase up the stairs, and found the door unlocked which was a bit usual. But she shrugged it off and found herself smiling as she opened the door, but it faltered when it was into darkness.

"Tony?" she called, setting her suitcase down by the door as she closed it, clicking the deadbolt into place and turning on the hall light. She got no answer as she stepped further into the apartment, but she could see the glow of the big flat screen TV in the living room. Since that was the only place where anything was happening, she headed there.

She figured that Tony had just must've gotten home from work, ordered some take-out and fallen asleep on the couch. The main menu for _Field of Dreams_ was on the screen and she figured that maybe his days were just as stellar as hers had been. She only thought for the briefest of moments of letting him sleep, but knew he would be as happy to see her as she was him, and anyways, she was getting some ideas on how to cheer them both up—and it had something to do without them having their clothes on.

She toed her shoes off and tip-toed to where he lay asleep wedge in to corner of the sofa in socked feet, a pair of blue jeans, and sweater; for whatever reason, he just looked so sexy to her right now. She stood in front of him, just gazing down at him as the light of the television played different shadows over his face. Tucking loose hair behind her ear she leaned forward and caressed his lips with hers, drawing the tip of her tongue against them from where his head was leaned back against the back of the couch. He looked worn and tired as hell, but that did nothing to take away from him.

God, sometimes she wondered how there wasn't world peace yet when there was lips like these in the world—it just didn't make sense to her; but then again, she wasn't one for sharing—at least not Tony. He was hers and everyone else just needed to back the fuck off!

A smiled played on her lips as he gave a slight moan but did not wake. This was even better; it was a game they sometimes played in bed, seeing how far they could get without waking the other. Once, Claire had woken up to an orgasm as Tony ate her out—it was one of the best wake-up calls she had ever gotten.

She quickly settled between his open legs. Of course, it was harder because he was wearing a pair of jeans and a belt, but she never let that stop her before. She wanted Tony to awaken with his cock in her mouth; just the thought was already making her wet.

She had always had steady, deft fingers; she needed them for her job, but they were also useful for other things, such as this. She had become an expert at undoing Tony's pants over the last year and some, but whether that was shameful or not, she didn't much care. She loved Tony and she loved getting in his pants.

He stirred, but only a little as she opened his fly and now came the tricky part. Tony was always hyper-aware of his penis' whereabouts, be it her hands or her mouth, she never got very far in this game, he always woke up before she did.

She could clearly see the outline of his sleeping cock under the tight, thin layer of his boxers and carefully unbuttoned the flap and opening it. It was like a sleeping dragon and stirred as her breath caressed it. She took his head between her lips, missing the feel of him as he whimpered.

" _Kate."_

Claire grinned around his cock as she suckled, her light brow quirking. The thought didn't anger her at all, she knew that Kate and Tony were exclusively friends and that was it. Kate was going to flip out when she told her best-friend about this; it was always funny to watch both her and Tony's reactions to such things.

He moaned again, shifting more and more as she inched more of his stiffness into her hot mouth. Soon, she knew, he was going to awaken and she couldn't wait to see his reaction; this was a surprise early return home if there ever was one.

Things could only get better from here.

...

When Gibbs sent them all home after the Esfiri business, Tony hadn’t gone home in relief, but had gone nonetheless—after a visit with Kate in the morgue, of course. He had found himself talking to her, talking to himself. It was like it was in the bullpen when he was remembering her, it had been so real. Her body was in the drawer, but she wasn't, and that was who he had talked to. Kate had kept telling him that he needed to get a hold of Claire, to get her back here. Tony had agreed whole-heartedly on the matter, but every time he tried, he failed. Kate had vanished in a growl of frustration, leaving a distinct chill in the air.

Tony went home after that, not feeling any better, but it wasn't like he expected to be. He pulled into his usual spot and missed Claire's hateful little 2000 blue Neon that was like an adult version of a VW Punch Buggie. He unlocked the door but didn't re-lock it as he shed his shoes and jacket at the door in the dark and lonely apartment. He got some left-over take-out from the fridge, but he wasn't sure which day he was grabbing, but it didn't really matter because after a bite or two he ate no more as he put his go-to movie in the DVD of the darkened living room to play with his shadowed mood with which the rain didn't help.

He slouched heavily on the couch as he hit play. He always watched _Field of Dreams_ when he was down, even though it made him tear up—but maybe that was the whole reason.

He remembered when he came home to Claire sitting in the dark and she dared him that he couldn't be 'not-good' at sex and he took that challenge—failing utterly, of course, he was a sex god, after all. It was a good memory, back in a good time where no one was dead, and the murderer of his friend and partner wasn't so sly enough to make the perfect scapegoat.

He must've fallen asleep sometime during the movie, and he started dreaming about Kate, about her, him and Gibbs on the roof. Her laughing, continuing to laugh harder and harder as a hole appeared in her forehead and blood sprayed everywhere and didn't seemed to stop. And then Gibbs started to laugh too, as Kate grabbed his hands, trapping him between the linked two, and they started to dance around him. And then Gibbs disappeared and it was just him and her as she continued to bleed. His body turned hot against his own will as she grabbed his hand and pushed his index finger into the warmth of her bullet hole. _Kate._ he whimpered at the feeling, trying to pull away but she was inhumanly strong.

He finally woke up a his hard cock in pleasant warmth, chasing away the nightmare and coming to another dream.

He was back in their apartment and Claire was there, kneeling between his legs, looking so sexy with his throbbing cock between her lips as she slowly pumped him with her mouth.

"Claire," he gasped reaching down and tangling his fingers into her silky, loose blond tresses.

She murmured her greeting back to him, it sending light vibration through his cock, making him moan. He couldn't stand it anymore, he needed to have her lips against his right now. He pulled her off his hard cock with a soft popping sound and pulled her up onto his lap, crushing his lips to her already swollen ones. Their teeth clashed but he didn't care, he was so desperate for all of her.

He pulled the hem of her tee up over her head, briefly breaking their kiss before they were back at it again. She unsnapped her bra tossing it away as he worked his own sweater off. He tossed it, it landing of the coffee table and knocked over the old takeout but he didn't care.

"Oh!" She let out a small squeak as he grabbed her hips and threw her down onto the couch. He ripped her pants and panties off her, kicking his own off as he stood on the couch, half in shadow, the other in flickering light from the TV. "Fuck." She moaned at the sight of him above her before he dropped to his knees between her legs.

He grabbed her thighs and jerked her toward him, aiming just right he speared her through. He grunted as he was instantly enveloped inside of her, and she cried out as he stuffed her full. No foreplay, just raw need and wanting for each other. He leaned over her, instantly starting to thrust into her like a jackhammer, lifting her off the couch with each one.

This was the relief that she needed, the kind that she didn't get back in her car as she screamed and cried and beat on her steering wheel. Here, she did much the same, letting the feel of him inside of her. It left her with a whole feeling, one that had been clearly lacking this last week. She cried out his name, moaned it like a prayer as he thrust into her, his grip on her hips nearly harsh enough to leave bruises as her fingernails dug into the muscled flesh of his back.

It was rough and hard, it didn't take long before either of them called out their orgasm. He collapsed on top of her, both their chests’ heaving, trying to catch their breath. God, how he didn't want this dream to end.

"I don't want to ever wake up," he murmured against her bare breast.

"Don't be silly, this is real, that's way better than a dream." She carded her fingers through his short locks.

He sighed softly, contented. "What?" he froze against her, her words finally registering. He leaned up on his elbows on either side of her and looked her in her aqua gaze. "What did you just say?"

She gave a soft chuckle as she looked into his blue eyes and traced his chin stubble with her fingertips. "I came home early, Tony. I kept thinking about your messages and how something didn’t sound right, and I couldn't stand to be there alone anymore." Her expression changed. "Tony, something happened, something--"

"Oh, my God!" he exclaimed, shoving himself from her and back onto his knees, her legs trapped between his own. "Oh, my God." He put his face in his hands.

"Tony!" she exclaimed, sitting up and pulling her legs out from beneath him. "What's wrong?"

Tony took gasping breaths. Claire was here, right in front of him, it wasn't a dream. She was right there and Kate was laying dead in the NCIS morgue. He had just fucked her and she didn't even know that Kate was gone, that her funeral was tomorrow, that the terrorist who had done it was still out there, still free.

"Tony," she murmured softly this time, gently prying his hands from his bowed face, forcing his to look at her kneeling naked in front of him. "Tell me what's wrong,"

He gently reversed the hold she had on his hands so now he was the one holding hers. "Claire..." his voice broke. Oh, how many times he had pictured doing this, how many times—but never like this, never. He swallowed as she watched him, still. "I don't know how I can tell you this to make it hurt any less--"

"Just tell me!" she whispered, her heart going tight in her chest.

"A few days ago," his voice caught and he squeezed her hands again. "A few days ago, when you left to visit you mom" —he couldn't have missed the pained flicker that flashed through her eyes at the mention of her mom even if he tried— "we were called to a scene with two deal sailors." She nodded, not sure how that would hurt her but continued to listen. "Their murders were just to draw us to the scene, to take us out--"

"Oh, my God! Are you okay?" she gasped. "Didn't I tell you not to get killed your first day back?" she mused, knowing that he was okay after doing what they just did.

"I'm okay." He didn't seem to like or maybe notice her tease. "They planted a bomb in the car to get rid of us, or more Gibbs, so that they could play a terrorist plot."

"Please tell me you got those bastards." She told him.

"We did. They stole a drone and loaded it with explosives and targeted the piers that were going to be packed with families welcoming home the sailors from overseas. Gibbs, Kate and I destroyed the controller and it crashed harmlessly into the water. The guy behind it all was Ari Haswari, but he wasn't there at the scene with the controller."

"Wait... isn't that they guy that held Kate and Ducky hostage in the morgue while I still worked with the FBI?"

"Y-yeah."

"Tony? Everything's okay, isn't it? You stopped the attack..."

He nodded again, looking pained. "We stopped the drone and everything was supposed to be okay, but... but," his voice broke and a tear leaked from his eye, it was just so hard to get the words out. He didn't want to be the one to have to tell the woman that he loved that her best-friend was killed hardly a week ago. Just watching him trying to tell her whatever it was that he was trying to tell her, was breaking her heart. "There was a sniper... we didn't know... he... Ari, he... shot K... Kate."

"What...?" she couldn't understand what he was saying, could believe it was true.

"He killed Kate, Claire." A sob clogged his throat as he watched as she slowly started to crumble. He pulled her to his chest, holding onto her tightly. "She dead. I'm so sorry..."

She shook as she clutched at him. All this time... Kate... the other woman had been her one true friend. All this time... Tony calling her, holding back the words as she refused to answer or call back as she worked to cover of the multi-murder of a Demon in her mother's body. Tears leaked from her eyes like hot lava. She bit into the flesh of Tony's shoulder as she started to sob. He winced, but only held onto her tighter. She let it wash over her like a tidal wave of loss, much like she had back when she had been alone in her car after setting the Institute on fire.

Finally, slowly, she pushed herself away from him and slowly sat down. "Wh--" she cleared the tears from her throat as he watched her. "Where's her body?" her voice was hoarse.

Tony gently tucked her blond hair behind her ear. "She's still in Ducky's morgue."

She sniffed, bobbing her head as she palmed the tears from her cheeks. "I, um, I have to see her." She said, she got up and started to slip her scattered clothes back on.

"I'll go with you." He started to get up but stopped at her hard _NO._ "Claire...?"

"I have to see her by myself." She told him, now fully dressed. "I just have to. You can understand that, can't you, Tony?"

Even as much as it hurt him, he did. "Alright,"

"I'll be back in a couple hours," she started for the door and he quickly stood, pulling on his boxers and followed behind her.

"Claire," she paused. "The funeral's tomorrow." Her expression was tight and she made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like a whimper before she closed the door to the apartment leaving Tony naked and alone.

xxx

A call through MTAC from Tel Aviv, a chat with the Mossad Deputy Director Eli David had finally convinced Ziva to cooperate with Gibbs and the first thing that he did was drag her down to Abby's lab with the display of shells that belonged to the bullets that Ari had used attempting to kill the members of his team, and succeeding in one. He was going to make the woman see through her denial and help him get his revenge.

With a little help from an old friend in the FBI and his own 'chat' with the DD, he found out that Ari was here in Washington to buy a kryton trigger so he could deliver it to the Hamas cell that had stolen a small amount of plutonium and then Mossad was supposed to grab him right back up. But things weren't quite on schedule, making them nervous.

"Do you know why Ari left his brass behind?" He wondered as he crouched next to the table, his eye level with the shells in the evidence jars.

She rolled her eyes. "You are a broken tape, Gibbs."

Gibbs didn't correct her phrasing. "A sniper's brass is like his signature. That's why a sniper always polices his brass." He glanced at her. "Lapua .308 casing. Boat-tail. Moly-coated full metal jacket bullet."

"That's what you shot as a Marine sniper." She noted. "At Mossad, we use Sierra 6.5 hollow points."

Gibbs stood up and gave her a narrowed look. "How do you know what I shot, Miss David?" he asked even though he already knew that as Ari's controller, she had profiled him herself.

"Ari's mission involved NCIS. As his controller, of course I did dossiers on everyone he might come in contact with."

Gibb was quiet, still, as he walked around the steel table and came around to her, leaning in close. "You found out about my first wife and daughter." He whispered.

"Yes. I'm sorry." She murmured after a moment.

"Then we know why Ari is shooting at women then, don't we?" he told her just the same.

"If he wanted you to know he is the sniper, why didn't he use your rifle? An M40?" She shook her head, her hand slicing through the air in a sharp gesture.

"The Bravo 51 he fired is called a 'Kate.'" He spat.

That seemed really to strike her and she turned from him, taking a step away. After a moment, she turned back to him once she got herself back under control. "I still don't believe Ari is the sniper. What you said should be investigated." She allowed.

"Well, when the media gets wind of this, it's going to create a furor." He said.

"Are you threatening to go to the media?" she demanded.

"No, not me. This can stay between Mossad and NCIS."

"In exchange for what? Setting up Ari for you to kill?" that sat worse with her than the media jab.

"No." He looked at her. "Setting me up for Ari. And if I'm wrong about this, he won't show up."

She paused. "And if you're right?"

"Then I'm counting on you to back me up." He said.

Yes, he had it all planned out, this was going to end... tonight.

xxx

She used her I.D. card to get into NCIS HQ and the took the elevator down to autopsy. It was dark and empty, and seemed completely different without Ducky and his little-long anecdotes to cheer the whole place up. She turned the overhead lights on and blinked in the brightness before she took a deep breath and started for the drawers where Kate's body would be.

Kate suddenly appeared in front of her and she startled so much that she fell back against the empty autopsy table. "Jesus!" she yelped, her breath condensing in the air as the morgue got marginally colder for an instant.

"Claire, thank God!" Kate gasped in relief.

"Kate," a sob left her throat unbidden as she looked at her friend's ghost and covered her mouth with her hand as she fought to control herself. "Oh, God."

"Oh, Claire." The brunette murmured, suddenly realizing that she had just gotten back and found out. "It's okay, really." She reached out to comfort her friend but didn't have much success with the whole contact thing. She looked at her hand. "I've kinda gotten used to it, now."

Claire finally took her hand away from her mouth and took a shuddering breath, looking at her dead friend. "I'm so sorry, Kate."

"Thanks, but there's nothing much you can do about it now." She said, knowing just where her friend was going to take it.

Claire nodded, tight-lipped. "Still..."

"I'm a ghost, Claire, who would have thought that this is where any of us would end up."

She looked a little sheepish. "It's not _that_ uncommon."

A dark brow quirked at her. "See, I told Tony you would know about this stuff."

"You talked to Tony?" she looked surprised.

"I've talked to everybody," she nodded. "But I don't think that they really knew that they were actually talking to _me_ and not just a figment of their imagination." She shrugged.

Claire nodded her understanding. If she didn't know what she knew, then she would probably think the same thing—it was probably better this way. She told Kate so, and the other woman seemed to agree.

"I'm not going to be stuck like this forever, am I?" she asked.

"People only become ghosts after they die when it's sudden and violent, or they have some unfinished business." Claire told her.

"Well, it was pretty sudden." Kate agreed. "Am I going to be stuck like this forever?"

"No; but if you stick around longer than you need to, you become bitter and angry—and that's how poltergeists are created—seriously pissed-off ghosts." She explained.

"Well, that would really suck."

"Yeah."

"So, why do you think I'm still here?" she wondered.

"Tony said that the guy that killed you is still running around," she said.

Kate groaned. "Ari, that bastard! He hates Gibbs like no one else since he shot Ari in the shoulder at their first encounter. He's nearly killed Tim, Abby and Director Shepard so far."

"Fuck. How has Gibbs not put him out of his misery?"

"Ugh! Apparently, Ari is working for the FBI to expose a terrorist cell as a double-agent, but he's really a triple-agent. It's completely insane. His handler’s here, totally preaching his innocence while I'm down here as a fucking ghost!" Kate complained, completely justified.

"Damn!" Claire agreed.

"So, you got to help me out here, Claire. You know about this stuff. What's a girl got to do to cross over?"

Claire couldn't stop the smile.

"Why aren't you with Tony?" she asked suddenly.

"I told him that I needed to see you by myself." Claire answered.

"Oh," Kate nodded. "I guess it would be a little awkward explaining this, huh?" she made an encompassing gesture.

"Just a little," she said sarcastically.

"So, what do I gotta do?"

"Right. Well, it seems that this whole thing is anchored on this Ari asshole—we send him to hell and that should send you to heaven." She reasoned.

"How are you gonna manage that?"

"Gibbs," Claire finally said after a moment of thought. "I'll go see him after here."

"Okay. Thanks, Claire, I mean it."

Claire smiled at her. "You were a really good friend, Kate. I just want to return the favour for not being here sooner..."

"Claire?" Kate asked.

"Um," she took a deep breath. "I buried my mom a couple days ago."

"What?" she gasped. "Oh, god. I am so sorry!" She was so frustrated that she couldn’t even hug her best-friend right now.

"Thanks," there was silence for a beat as they looked at each other. "Gibbs and I will get this bastard, Kate, don't you worry about that."

Kate nodded and smiled. "Thanks," and she vanished just as suddenly as she had appeared.

Claire stayed a moment longer, wondering what she had just promised, wondering if she could pull it off. This guy had to be supper cunning if he had lasted this long in Gibbs’ crosshairs, it was kind of scary. "I love you, Kate." She murmured before she left the morgue and ran back through the rain to her car.

She didn't remember how she knew Gibbs' home address, but Tony always told her that he never locked his front door and to just walk in, then there was the boat that he always seemed to be building in his basement.

The rain plastered her blond hair to her skull as she rain from her car and through the unlocked front door, the wind tangling the loose strands and whipping them in her face. She stumbled through his living room and turned to the right down the hall next to the stairs that led upstairs, attracted to the single light source there was like a moth to the flames.

"Gibbs?" she called, finally straightening her hair out and clearing her vision as she stumbled to a stop on the small landing at the top of the wooden basement stairs. "Shit..."

Gibbs didn't appear to be working his unshed emotions of the boat skeleton that adorned the central space of the basement, nor did he appear to be alone—the guy pointing his rifle at him nixing that notion.

"Novak." He looked up at her with none-to-pleased glare from where he seemed to be leaning back rather relaxed against the bottom railing of the stairs.

"You seem to surround yourself beautiful women, Gibbs, you just can't help yourself." Ari murmured, the gun still pointing at him, even as he appraised her.

Gibbs glared at him, standing up straight. "She has nothing to do with this. _Go,_ Claire."

Claire didn't move, but not because she was frozen in fear (she had just sent a Demon back to Hell a few days ago), but because there was no way she was going to leave Gibbs here to die—not after losing her mother and Kate.

"Ah, Claire, is it. Such a beautiful name, I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Gibbs." He looked up at her. "Why don't you join us down here, Claire?"

After a brief pause of eyeing the man, her hands slightly raised out at her sides, she descended the stairs, never taking her eyes off him. She stopped at the bottom, as soon as her wet shoes touched the concrete, standing next to Gibbs, who silently told her in one quick glance how royally pissed he was at her for not listening to him.

"Claire Novak, how is it that you know our mutual friend here?" the man with the Israeli accent questioned her, the barrel of the rifle briefly bobbing between the pair.

"How about _you_ tell me." She returned coolly; for a guy facing off against Gibbs, he seemed rather calm, it was a bit unnerving.

He gave a small chuckle. "Oh, just a long game of Cat and Mouse coming to its final conclusion, appropriately so. But you, dear, a unexpected wrench thrown into the works."

"I tend to do that." Claire agreed, not taking her narrowed eyes off him, nor shutting up like Gibbs was silently telling her to beside her. "So, what's _your_ name?"

"Oh, why not? You're going to die here tonight anyway... Ari Haswari,"

Claire's aqua eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath as she recognized the name—the name of the man that murdered her best-friend. But just as quick her eyes narrowed and she clenched her jaw. "You bastard!" she screamed. Gibbs grabbed her arm as she took a step forward, halting her progress to go and kill him before she could even truly start.

Ari laughed in delight. "So, you do know me."

"You killed my best-friend!" It was like fire behind her eyes as he continued to chuckle as she strained to no avail against Gibbs' bruising grip on her arm. "You're dead..." Why—why the hell didn't she have her gun? She cursed herself. She had come over here to plot the death of the very man standing in front of her, and she didn't even bring her sidearm? She obviously wasn't thinking clearly after finding out about Kate's death two hours before. She didn't even have a knife on her, like one of Gibbs stupid but reliable rules said.

"I really didn't want to kill Caitlin," Ari told her as Gibbs jerked her back to his side. "I rather liked her. But she was a disposable piece in our game."

Claire growled. "If you think you're gonna g--"

"But I am." He interrupted her, and the light tone he had been using while talking with her, vanished and she seemed to realize just how dangerous he was. She stopped fighting against Gibbs. "This was going to end with Gibbs committing suicide with his own rifle after the devastating loss of his Agent, but now that you are here, Claire, this alters things a bit."

Claire didn't like the sound of that and Gibbs started to inch her behind him, as if that would do a thing. "She has nothing to do with this."

"But she does, Gibbs. You know her, you obviously care about her... and she walked in on you trying to kill yourself, seeking answers after hearing about the loss of her dear-friend, Caitlin; with his pain so deep, he killed you before taking his own."

Claire scoffed. "No one would believe that for a second!"

He said nothing as he directed the barrel of Gibbs' sniper rifle at her, half hidden behind Gibbs. "Sorry, to dis--Hgh!" "Agh!"

Double shots sounded, one marginally different than the other. Two shot; one dead, the other wounded. Gibbs glanced briefly upwards to the doorway of his basement as Ziva lowered her handgun, to the still body of Ari splayed on the cement floor with a halo of blood as the woman slowly descended the stairs.

Claire saw her. "Who the he--Argh!" she grunted as Gibbs grabbed her right injured shoulder and started to inspect the wound; it hurt like a bitch.

"It was a clean shot, through-and-through." Gibbs told her, noting the hole in the brick work behind them. He turned his attention briefly to Ziva as he applied pressure to Claire's shoulder. "He said his father was a Deputy Director at Mossad."

Ziva made a faint sniffling sound as she looked down at his body. "Yes."

"Not David?"

"He was my half-brother." She whispered faintly, collapsing into the stool beside her at the work table.

He looked at her for a long moment as he left Claire and retrieved his rifle from beside the body, briefly giving her hand a squeeze as he passed back by and collecting the grimacing Claire on his way up the stairs.

Even as it hurt her, she twisted around to looked at the Israeli as she started to sing softly, "Who the hel--"

"Quiet." Gibb told her, dragging her through the door, down that hall, and setting her in a kitchen chair after he flicked the light on.

"Gibbs--"

"I said quiet." And he left her there, open-mouthed.

She was goddamned shot, and she deserved some answers right about now! He returned a moment later with a first aid kit, and pulled up another chair at her right shoulder. She grunted as he helped extract her arm from her jacket, and then tore the upper part of her tee to expose her wounded shoulder and the gunshot that was still gushing blood.

"Seriously!" She gasped as he pressed pads of gauze to either side of her bullet wound and started to wrap it. "What the hell just happened, Gibbs?"

"What are you doing here, Claire?" Gibbs asked.

"That's all you have to say? My mother just died and I just found out that Kate was killed, and that _all_ you have to say?!" She shouted; her shoulder was throbbing and on fire, the pain was a killer and obviously it was making her say stupid stuff as Gibbs looked at her with surprised ice-blue eyes.

"Your mother died?"

"What? No. I said my friend just died." She corrected him. "I was just fucking shot, Gibbs! Why haven't you called this in? Who the hell was the woman, Haswari's sister?!"

"Listen to me, Agent Novak." Gibbs looked at her for a long moment, and it was almost more unnerving than being down there with the man who killed Kate. "She was never here, do you understand me."

"What--?"

"Do you understand me, Novak." His voice was low, intense. "Clear?"

She looked back him, still, as the hymn of the woman's voice floated up from the basement. "I understand," she murmured finally.

He gave a single nod as finished wrapping her packed wound. "You need to get this checked out."

She continued to watch him, grimacing, her other fist pressed flat against the kitchen table. "Yeah. That's probably a good idea..." This couldn't be happening, but it was.

xxx

Gibbs had called it in not long after, but by then Ziva had gone and then come back around the same time that the SIU had come. It was like a circus act and she felt like she was kept there forever while they questioned both her and Gibbs and processed the scene downstairs, with only a couple Tylenol to tide over the pain his her shoulder before they finally sent her off in an ambulance to Bethesda Hospital.

They gave her an CAT scan and like Gibbs had said with his limited medical knowledge, it was a clean shot; it didn't hit bone or any arteries, her muscles were intact, just some tissue damage that they stitched right up. They wanted to hold her over night, but she had flat-out refused—she was not going to miss her best-friend's funeral—and they let her leave with a sling, a bottle of painkillers, a bottle of antibiotics, and a bottle of anti-inflammatory pills. They also offered to call someone to come and get her, but she took a cab back to Tony instead.

She paid the guy and stepped out into drizzle but she didn't immediately go into the building, she stood under the security light at the front entrance, her head bowed. She wasn't going to talk—to think—about that woman, Ziva. She wasn't.

She slowly climbed the stairs several floors up, pausing briefly on one of the landings, catching her breath and waiting until the slight light-headedness she was feeling as the night, the week, was starting to catch up with her. Gripping the railing, she started up again until she finally got to their floor.

She paused at their apartment door. Last she checked, it was 2:00 a.m., but she knew that Tony would still be up, climbing the walls until she came back, knowing there was nothing he could do until she did. She knocked with her left fist, there wasn't much behind it, but it got the job done, and the door whipped open 5 seconds later.

Tony stopped just short of grabbing her up as he saw her sling, the bag of meds she was carrying... the dried blood that covered her shoulder. "Claire, what--!" He took her left hand and gently pulled her inside, closing the door and locking it tight. "Claire?" she didn't keep walking and stopped in the middle of the hall, hunched over slightly. He came around her front and gently cupped her pale and cold cheek, urging her to look up at him, but she didn't. "Are you okay?" he murmured. "What happened?"

She gave a short empty laugh. "I went to see Kate, and then I went to Gibbs'... he wasn't completely alone."

"He--"

She met his eyes straight this time. "Ari Haswari was there. He was going to kill Gibbs when I walked in, he told me to leave but I didn't. I got shot for my troubles and the bastard got a VIP pass to Hell."

He caught his breath. "Ari's dead?"

She nodded. "Yeah. A bullet in the head tends to do that to you."

He took the bag from her fingers and put in on the small side table in the hall by the coat hooks and took her hand with a soft breath and lead her down the hall to their bathroom adjacent their bedroom.

"Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" She was like a numb-zombie as he sat her on the toilet and started the bath.

As the bath filled, he helped her out of her wet and bloodied clothes, careful of her injured arm as he carefully extracted it from the sling and then helped her into the steaming bathwater. He started to wash her gently with a sponge as she sat with her legs drawn up to her chest; all he could think about was how thankful he hadn't almost lost her as he had lost Kate.

"Big day tomorrow," he whispered.

"Tony?" She looked at him suddenly, catching his blue gaze. "Don't leave me, okay? Don’t die, like everyone else, please." Her voice broke.

He took her face in his hands, not knowing yet that she meant more than just Kate. "I won't. I promise." He swore, gently catching her lips. "I love you, Claire." He leaned over the edge of the tub and pulled her wet, naked body against his clothed one, wanting never to let her go again but knowing that eventually he would have to.

xxx

She wore a dress (with a blazer to hid her sling) that was not unlike the one that she had worn to her mother's funeral days ago, and now she was at her best-friend's. She wondered if she was going to burn this dress, too, afterward—as it was, it was also similar to the one that she had worn to her grandparents' funeral all those years ago as well. Unlike with her mother's funeral, Kate's whole family (her mother, father, brothers, grandparents, and other friends), and her team were there as she was bestowed with full honours.

Tony held her hand the whole time, and it was almost like it should have been at Amelia's, but it would never be because Kate was soon to be six feet under. It helped, that Ari was dead, she knew (even if she had the reminder of the double scar on her shoulder for the rest of her life). She saw Kate's ghost briefly as she placed a rose unto her closed coffin, draped with the American flag, her breath briefly condensing on her painted lips as the brunette gave her a grin before vanishing for good.

That was good, at least her friend wouldn't become a pissed-off poltergeist—that would have been a little awkward.

　

tbc! !

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I don't know when this will be updated again; the last I wrote for this series was January 2015.**  
> .....  
>  I really liked Kate Todd and was sorry to see her go after just two seasons, though happy when she Sasha Alexander reappeared in "Rizzoli & Isles" as Maura.
> 
> PPS. I heard of "Field of Dreams" from an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" and they said that it could make any man cry, so I watched it and didn't cry (and I wondered briefly if I was a cold-hearted(/less) bastard, but it didn't last very long). But it seemed to be my go-to movie when I write and want to make a guy cry about a movie.
> 
> PPPS. A little something that didn't make it into the chapter either because it was rather funny and mean-hearted (?) [but of course, that means I found it hilarious... "And as Tony gazed at Ziva slicing through the water, of course Kate popped up in his head—even dead she was kind of annoying." ...LOL, right?


	21. More Than A White Lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire gets a new tattoo, one that bears remarkable resemblance to several connected cold cases the team worked more than a year before—and Tony wants answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, surprise! It's me again with an update. I know I said at the end of the last chapter that I didn't know when I would write for this story again—I've had writer's block for three-years with this puppy—but when I got home after posting I was shocked and very pleased to find myself writing a new chapter!   
> I've finally gotten to watch season 10 and 11 (now just waiting to get a hold of 12) and I've been sucked back into the NCIS ‘verse. It's been a while since I've written for NCIS or Supernatural, so I hope I can get back into the character mind-set. Enjoy!  
> Including your favourite Supernatural duo!
> 
> Four days into mandatory leave.

Claire let the loud buzz of the needle drown out the swirling, rushing, clamouring thoughts in her head that hadn't seemed to stop since her visit with her mo-- the Demon possessing Amelia. And the twisting in her gut was slowing starting to uncramp that had been keeping her awake for the past two weeks as ink changed the pigment of her skin.

Castiel and Dean had told her that there was nothing to worry about anymore, but she had thought that before. Had been naïve enough to believe it after Castiel had left her body and took her father for the second and final time. She just couldn't take the chance anymore.

The artist bandaged her up, gave her a tube of lotion and sent her on her way. Now she just needed to convince Tony to get a matching tattoo.

...

"I got pizza and beer!" Claire called into the apartment when she got home, heading into the kitchen.

Claire set the pizza and six pack onto the counter as Tony came up behind her, brushing her loose hair over her shoulder and started to kiss the supple flesh of her pale neck. "Mm." She sighed, reaching back and pushing her fingers into his hair

"You're the best," he swore as he kissed his along her shoulder, his arms going round her middle.

Claire let out an involuntary hiss. This wasn't her first rodeo; she'd gotten the Angel Wings when she was a teenager, she'd just forgotten how tender and sensitive the skin was the first 42 hours as the ink settled.

Tony instantly pulled away, concern crossing his features. "Is the gunshot wound still bothering you?" but that couldn't be right, she had been shot in the right shoulder, not the left.

The story that she and Gibbs had spun the team and the Director had Gibbs shooting Ari from the top of the stairs while she had been held at gunpoint at the bottom. The bloody bullet buried in brick wall limited their literary options. Ziva David was never mentioned; something Claire still couldn't understand—but it was Gibbs Law or Gibbs Law, there was no other c) none of the above. But it wasn't like she had the high ground here; she'd told more than her share of lies.

Claire shook her head. Maybe if they never saw each other naked again, she could used the excuse, but as it was, this wasn't something she wanted to or was going to hide from Tony; not when it could help keep him safe from forces he didn't even know existed.

"No." She shook her head and turned around to face him. "Tony, I--"

"Are you pregnant?" he uttered; there was a mixture of emotion in his eyes: fear, hope, uncertainty. He didn't know what one had to do with the other, but once the subconscious thought entered his head it escaped his mouth—that was what usually landed him in trouble

Claire was completely taken aback. She had not been prepared one bit for that line of thought and it almost felt like she'd been cut off at the knees. She leaned back heavily against the counter, gripping the edge, afraid her knees might give out. "What?" she managed to voice breathlessly.

Tony stepped closer, rubbing her arms soothingly with slightly trembling hands, before he planted them firmly on her hips. "The night you came home," his voice was raspy and he cleared his throat, swallowing. "We didn't use protection..." He was panting. She didn't from know what; excitement, fear? It was hard to tell when _she_ didn't even know what she was feeling. "And you left right after."

"No. No," she finally managed to croak out over the lump in her throat. "No. God, Tony." She reached up and cupped his face, her fingertips dancing against his jaw. "I'm..." she swallowed. "I'm not pregnant." She whispered. "I'm on the pill."

"Oh." His shoulders slumped and she wasn't sure if it was relief or disappointment; probably both. She pressed her lips to his firmly before resting their foreheads together; they breathed each others breath for a moment before he leaned back marginally and gazed at her. "What happened to your shoulder?"

"I got another tattoo."

"You did?" it was his turn for the unexpected. After a moment his expression lit up and he grinned as he gazed at her, mentally undressing her. "Sexy treasure hunt?" he suggested excitedly.

Claire couldn't help the huff of laughter. "Knowing where it is kind of defeats the point."

"I'll just take the scenic route," he said lasciviously. He took her hand and started to pull her towards their bedroom.

"Tony." Her tone made him stop. "When you see it, the last thing on your mind is going to be sex, Tony."

He made a face. "It's not Donald Trump or anything, is it?"

"Are you out of your mind?" she questioned. It bore questioning after a question like that, but she was sure he would be asking that of _her_ soon enough.

"I can't think of anything else that would stop me from wanting to have sex with you," he admitted.

"Just... don't freak out." She whispered.

"Well, _now_ I'm freaking out." He replied, chuckling nervously, trying to break the sudden tension.

He let go of her hand as she took a step back and turned her back to him. His nervousness got distracted with building want as he watched her undress in the hall. Claire took off her open, button-up long sleeve and tossed it onto the kitchen table, before she pulled her left arm out of her tank top, revealing her bare back and a white square bandage at the upper back of her shoulder.

He stepped forward, reaching out and caressing his hands up the curve of her back, his thumbs stroking the smooth flesh. Claire squeezed her eyes closed as he took hold of the bandage and carefully peeled it back. His gaze swept over the reddened flesh revealed, the dark ink. Taking in the little things; the diameter of 3''. Then, the bigger picture.

His breath froze in his lungs. It was a symbol. A five-point star in the side of a flaming circle. It was the same symbol he'd seen on several dead Marines. Claire squeezed her eyes tighter.

Tony stepped back, horrified. "Claire, what the hell is that?" he demanded, pointing. "Why do you have the same tattoo as those dead Marines?!"

Claire slipped her arm back through the sleeve, her shoulders straightening. She turned back to face him. "It's a protection symbol—to prevents possession."

"Po-- what are you talking about? Why do you have that?" he demanded again. He heard her words, but couldn't understand. "Claire! I know Kate dying has been hard--"

"My mother," it came out fainter than she intended, like her body was still attempting to keep the secret. "My mother died, Tony. That's why I came home early."

"What?" out of everything he had been expecting, that had the last thing he expected to hear. "Why-- why haven't you told me--?"

"She didn't--" Claire shook her head. "It wasn't even her when I got there."

"Claire," Tony grasped her upper arms. "You told me yourself, your mother was sick--"

"That's not what I mean." She carded her fingers through her mane in frustration. "Everything that my mother said that landed her in the hospital was not a delusion—she just couldn’t cope with the truth. She was possessed by a demon when I was thirteen and she was possessed when I visited her at the hospital." She glanced back at him. "I'm not having a mental-break!" she protested to the silent implication of his expression.

"Ok, ok." He patted the air soothingly. "Just talk to me."

"I am!" she shouted and smacked his hands down in irritation.

"Ah." He winced and rubbed his hands. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes!" she snapped. "Kate. After she died, you talked to her, you all did—she told me."

"Claire," Tony said softly, "I watched my partner get killed two feet in front of me. That is not just something you can brush off. Of course I was seeing her everywhere, I wanted it to be true!"

"You talked to her in the bullpen at your desk. She had on a school-girl uniform--"

Tony blinked in shock. "How--?"

"She told me, Tony." Claire persisted. "You told her you used to picture her naked, she could always read you. You thought you were dreaming, but you weren't. That was really Kate, it was her ghost."

"No, no. That's not possible." Tony denied, shaking his head. " _The Exorcist_ is just a movie, people don't get possessed. You're not the kid from _Sixth Sense_. You just know me really well and that my coping mechanisms include: sex, movie references, and bad humour." He ticked off on his fingers emphatically.

She tried one last time, softly, "You asked advice on how to break the news to me that she was dead."

"Mm-mm." He shook his head belligerently in refusal to believe. And went back to his coping mechanisms. "It's a good thing that 'grieve-leave' is only for a couple more days," Tony remarked, carding fingers roughly through his hair and making it stick-up like he was a porcupine. "I clearly have cabin fever. And this is some lucid nightmare trying to get my juices flowing. Well," he faced the ceiling and called: "How about something more naughty and sexy, huh? Throw ol' DiNozzo Jr. a T-bone after the last couple of weeks. I'm not in the mood for _Inception_ right now!"

"I know this doesn't seem real," Claire said. "But I'm telling you the truth. I wish I didn't have to, I wish this could stay my little dark secret and stay in the dark. But after what happened to my mother. This," her right hand reached across and gripped her left shoulder, addressing the tattoo, "I couldn't risk the same thing happening to you. I've already lost too many people because of this--" tears clouded her eyes.

Tony instantly enveloped her in his arms and she wrapped her arms around his torso, her face buried in his throat, breathing him in as he petted her hair. "Nothing's going to happen to me," he swore into her hair, kissing her head. "I'm not going anywhere. I survived _the_ plague, find me someone who can say the same."

But Claire shook her head against him in denial. "You were dying. You were going to die!"

Tony hushed her. "But I didn't. I'm right here. Fit as ever!"

Maybe, now that it had been a month since he had been released from the hospital. "My--" she started, almost saying 'dad' before she caught herself. "Castiel, he was the one--" but he wouldn't believe that either.

Claire paced out into the living room and he followed, but allowed her, her space. She tucked her hair behind her ears, only for it to come loose with her frantic movement.

She didn't know how to be rational with an unrational subject. If she hadn't gone through what she did when she was thirteen, with Angels, Demons, and the Winchesters; she would have thought that Kate's ghost had just been a figment of her grief, she wouldn't believe what she was trying to tell Tony now, no matter how much he loved and trusted her—not without proof.

So be it, she would get him proof!

Tony started when she stopped in front of his just as abruptly as she had started pacing. This was not the night he was expecting when she came home with pizza (that was now cold) and beer (that was now warm). "I--" he started, but then so did she, shifting on her feet nervously before she became serenely still.

"Ok. I would tell you not to freak out, but even I did, so..." Tony watched her in confusion as she clasped her hands in front of her, bowed her head—and prayed.

Unsure what he was supposed to, uncomfortable with the thought of interrupting her, he watched and waited and wondered what he wasn't supposed to freak out about.

Then there was a flapping sound. A few strands of her blond hair picked up in the puff of air—and suddenly, there were two strange men standing behind his girlfriend. One with dirty-blond hair and a worn leather jacket, and the other with black slightly curled hair and a tan trench coat.

He made a squeaky-grunty noise, the same usually reserved for a Gibbs Slap. She always found it adorable, like a cute little teacup piglet. But now she bit the inside of her cheek nervously. Reaching out carefully, and stroking his arm soothingly. "Tony?"

"Think you broke 'im, Cas." Dean spoke first.

"He should no longer be ill, I cleaned his blood of the human sickness, the plague." Castiel responded, visually examining the man.

"Murse!" Tony looked at him, wide-eyed. He'd thought had been hallucinating, sure that he was going to die and wanting Claire so bad. He'd never seen Lt. Cas Winchester, the on-duty nurse when he and Kate had been in quarantine for the plague, he'd always worn a mask—but he knew those aqua eyes.

Claire and Castiel gave him twin blank stares, but Dean chuckled. "Male nurse. I saw you in the uniform, too. Nice to get out of that trench coat once in a while even if it's outta one suit and into another." He elbowed the Angel to no effect.

Tony sucked in a sharp breath that made him want to cough but he fought through it. "Your name _isn't_ Cas Winchester. You're Claire's father!" his mind overrode what it couldn't process and one thing that it could: this was Claire's deadbeat dad! "You bastard! How could you just walk out on her like that? She was just a kid, she loved you. She didn’t deserve that!"

A remorseful and sorrowful expression swamped the man's soulful face. His voice was even rougher than usual as he looked at Claire and murmured, "I am not her father."

Claire couldn't stop the pain that the statement brought her; gave her a scar when she was twelve and did not really understand that it hadn't been Jimmy talking to her, even as he was looking back at her. Tony saw it, and it made him see red.

Claire jumped in front of Tony before he could think to take a swing, fists clenched in the front of his Ohio State sweatshirt; Dean manoeuvred in front of Castiel with a similar idea, but she was sure that while Cas would Turn The Other Cheek, Dean would not pull his punches.

"Stop! He's not my father, not anymore! But he's still-- he's still my friend! They both are. They were there for me, at mom's funeral, when you and Kate couldn't be. I didn't ask, I thought I could do it by myself like a lot of other things I've done alone. But I needed it—them—if I could have you, or Kate ever again. Castiel saved your life!" she screamed.

"What are you talking about?" he stumbled back a step.

"There was no suicide strain in the plague, Tony. The Y-pestilence was still active inside you, it would have killed you. But Castiel, he-- he killed the bug in your blood."

"Gibbs said--"

"Gibbs lied."

Tony sat heavily on the couch. "Gibbs knows."

"Sort of. He knows 'of' Castiel, not what he is."

"Then why--?"

"There were no time for questions." She answered. "It was a gut moment, and he trusted his gut. He told a white lie that saved everyone a lot of trouble and kept you from becoming a human lab rat."

Tony scoffed and climbed back onto his feet. "I think this counts as more than a simple white lie, Claire!" he shouted in frustration, his fists clenched. "You've been keeping secrets, lying to me! If your mom hadn't died, would you ever have told me?"

"I was trying to protect you." She whispered. "The other person that knew the truth, that lived it—it broke her, Tony." Unbidden tears flooded her eyes. "It's destroyed my mother."

Tony's arms dropped to his sides and after a moment of meditative breathing, his fists unclenched. He needed to get his head on straight. WWGD. What would Gibbs do? He honestly had no idea how Gibbs would react if he were in his place, but if Gibbs was _with_ him right now, Tony knew exactly what the boss would do. Tony rose his hand and did a Self-Gibbs Slap, and everything stilled. Dean gave him a bizarre look like he was the insane one. But Tony gave a calm exhale and focused on his girlfriend.

Claire could stop the small smile at the action. "Better?"

Tony gave a single nod. "I don't get any of this. What am I supposed to do, Claire? What do you want me to do?"

"The tattoo," she whispered and nodded her head aside at Dean. Tony shifted his gaze to the man as he grasped the collar of his v-neck tee and stretched it down to the left side of his chest—and revealed a slightly bigger version of Claire's new tattoo under his left collarbone (in the same place that those dead Marines had theirs). "It doesn't have to be big, it just has to be done right. You can hide it somewhere where only I would ever see it. Please, Tony. I know you don't understand it, but I need you to do this for me—please. I need to know that you'll be safe, no matter what."

"I've never liked needles," Tony muttered, staring. He gave his head a little shake and looked down into his girlfriend's aqua blue eyes. "Ok." He swallowed. "Alright. If this is something that you need me to do."

"Tony!" Claire gasped in relief and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight.

Tony held her just as tight, and watched over the crown of her head as the man that _wasn't_ her father, but an Angel and other man blinked from sight, vanished. He shuddered and held her all the more tightly.

tbc!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think? When I first started writing this I don’t think I intended to do anything with the protection tattoo from the first chapters, but its been a few years and opinions change. Tell me yours?


	22. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony needs to gain some perspective and goes to the man with the gut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure there are some of you out that who wondered, after reading chapter 15, why there was no conversation between Claire & Gibbs after he saw Castiel vanish—Well, I'm going to remedy that now... adjacently.
> 
> _Reference to Supernatural S.4 E.20: The Rapture._

Tony didn't know how long he had been driving. It was already dark out by the time he couldn't be in their apartment any longer and needed to get out—get space before his brain melted completely. What Claire was trying to explain to him in simple terms, weren't really all that simple. He felt bad for just leaving like that, but he was afraid that _he_ was the one having a mental breakdown himself if he didn’t.

And that was how he found himself pulling his Mustang in behind Gibbs' truck—he needed some major sense slapped into this. It was late to be making house calls; he just hoped that this wasn't the one time that Gibbs decided to call it an early night and close the Basement.

He didn't knock, he didn't need to. He wasn't going to start now. "Boss?" he called as he started down the basement stairs, but quickly got side-tracked from his mission as his gaze was drawn to the patch of pale spackle on the dark brick wall at the bottom of the stairs. This must have been where Claire had been shot, the through-and-through to her right shoulder.

He had spent the hours that she was gone pacing up the walls in the apartment, biting his nails, tearing out his hair. He had thought, hoped, that she had spent all that time in autopsy with Kate; only to find out the truth when she knocked on their apartment door with a bag of drugs in one hand and her other arm in a sling.

"Tony." Gibbs' tone wasn't sharp, but it was firm, and it pulled the Agent from his head.

Tony turn toward him from the bottom of the stair and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. What was he supposed to say? _Hey, boss. Did you really know that there was no suicide strain in that plague virus and I was actually saved by an Angel that's possessing my girlfriend's father?_ Oh, maybe that was a question he really needed to answer. What came out, was, stupidly: "Did you know?"

"What, DiNozzo?" Gibbs raised a brow. "I'm not a mind reader. Use your words."

Tony laughed. "That's funny coming from you, boss, when most of your vocabulary consists of head-slaps, singularly raised eyebrows, and stares. See?" he pointed out the Stare, nervously. "A lot like that one." At least he was too far away for a head-slap. But maybe he needed it; it had helped him before. He stepped further into the room. "Claire's mom--" he said instead.

"Yeah. She let it slip after..." Gibbs nodded behind him at the plaster patch on the wall. "Maybe I should have pushed."

But Tony shook his head. "She wasn't ready. She just came home from her mom's funeral, to walk right into her best-friend's. It hasn't even been a week since we buried Kate."

"What brought this up, Tony?" Gibbs questioned. "She finally tell you and you got upset that she didn't tell you sooner?"

"Of course I wish she would have told me!" Tonty said. "But that was just first domino that knocked the rest."

Gibbs sighed. "Rule 45, DiNozzo."

"This is important, boss!"

Gibbs just jerked in chin with the go ahead.

"Her father--" he stopped and shook his head. "No. _Castiel._ " Tony looked at him as he said that name and could see the light that was sparked in the man's eyes. "So you do know him." He gaped. "Claire said you ran into him at the hospital when-- with the plague and-and-- you knew! There wasn't--"

"There was no suicide strain in the virus, Tony." Gibbs confirmed.

"You lied to me!" he exclaimed, feeling profoundly hurt by the concept. He hadn't wanted to believe Claire when she admitted that Gibbs knew, had participated.

"What would have the truth changed, other than running you into my basement all the sooner." Gibbs replied.

"What really happened can't just be ignored!" he protested. "Castiel is an... _Angel_ , boss!"

"I'm not vain enough to believe that my order for you not to die helped you beat a disease without a cure. I went with my gut, I trusted Novak. It was a miracle that I chose not to question and accepted the benefit. Those don't come around very often, Tony."

Tony was quiet. Of course he didn't like to be kept in the dark, especially when it was concerning himself. And could he really be blamed for not handling the truth all that adultly and running to his boss? Leroy Jethro Gibbs always had the answer, as was proven right now.

"How could you not of had a whole session with her in your conference room?" Tony wondered out loud.

"She's very adept at avoiding the question. A trait learned from the F.B.I. I‘m sure."

"She's one of us now!" Tony defended.

"I know, DiNozzo."

Tony chewed his lips as he picked at the grain on the edge of the workbench. Wondering if he should tell Gibbs about Kate, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea when he was still in the _Ghost Busters_ is real? phase. Claire said it was nothing like that, but he had nothing else to compare it to.

"There's something else, Gibbs." He finally said, looking up.

"Go talk to your girlfriend, Tony." Gibbs said.

"It's about what happened to her mother, how she died." Tony said. "I think you're going to want to hear this."

"What is it?" Gibbs knew that Tony wouldn't break Claire's confidence unless it was necessary.

"Claire got a new tattoo, boss." Tony said. "You're not gonna--"

"DiNozzo," Gibbs was shaking his head in exasperation. "I am not your Couple's Councillor." He'd stepped in once already and that was more than enough.

Tony stepped up and grabbed the pencil that was tucked behind his boss' ear and bent over the table, quickly sketching on the corner of the boat blueprints that the man had drawn up himself. "Look," he stood back and gestured at it.

Gibbs looked at his Agent for a moment, before he reached out and adjusted the workbench lamp to better illuminate the bottom corner. Gibbs was on his feet an instant later as it clicked; O'Brien, Ranjer, Quade, and Jordon; all cold cases. "Why the hell did your girlfriend get the same tattoo that was on four dead Marines, Tony!"

Tony cringed away. "She said it was a protection symbol."

"Protection from what?" he growled.

Tony hunched. "Demons." He squeaked.

Gibbs head-slapped him. "No jokes, DiNozzo."

"I'm telling the truth, boss!" he protested, rubbing the back of his head.

Gibbs glared at him for a moment before he pulled out his cell and smacked it onto the table. "Call her. Get her here. Now!"

Tony blinked at it. "I'll, um--" he swallowed. "Just use my own phone, thanks, boss!" he pulled his from his sweater pocket and quickly scurried to the opposite corner of the basement to make the call before he could incur another Gibbs Slap. "Claire?" she picked up before the first ring was even finished. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I need you-- you needed to come to Gibbs'. Now. Like, right now. He's not very happy. Sorry. I love you, too. Drive Gibbs Style." He put his phone away and returned to Gibbs. "She's on her way, boss."

"Sit." Gibbs told him, and poured him some bourbon.

...

Claire hesitated at the top of the stairs in the basement doorway. The first and last time she had been here was hardly a week ago, with the man that had killed her best-friend holding Gibbs at gun point with the intention of staging it to look like suicide. She reached across and rubbed her right shoulder; she was out of the sling, but the stitches were still present—she wasn't done healing yet.

"Novak!" Gibbs barked and it moved her into action down the stairs and officially into the basement.

"Can I have one of those?" she pointed at the bourbon as she approached the pair.

"No." Gibbs said.

" _Mean_ ," she muttered. She cleared her throat uncomfortably under his Glare, "Right. So... we're finally going to have that talk, huh?"

"Explain!" he growled, and planted his finger at the corner of the blueprints on the workbench, indicating something she clearly couldn't see from this distance.

She glanced at Tony, looking for some help, but he avoided her gaze and focused on his jar of bourbon. She approached the bench cautiously, her glance shooting between the two men before she leaned forward between where Tony was seated on the stool and Gibbs stood—and saw a rough sketch of the tattoo on her shoulder. Her left shoulder twitched.

Claire sent Tony a wide-eyed look. Tony gave a responding helpless shrug. He went to take a drink, but she took it from him before it could reach his lips and finished it off. She set it on the workbench and straightened as she faced Gibbs.

"To answer your first question; I didn't recognize it when I saw it at the Jordon crime scene. I swear!"

"Would you have told me if you did?" Gibbs said.

"Honestly? I don't know," she admitted. She jolted and flinched at the sudden pain in the back of her head and looked at the older man with wide eyes. "You, You Slapped me!" she gasped; she hadn't even seen him move.

"Ya think?"

"But-- I--" she stuttered.

"You work with my team. On my team. I need to know that I can trust you. That you have their six."

"Of course I do!" she protested. "I would never do anything to get them hurt. They're my friends, Gibbs!" Gibbs just nudged his chin at the symbol, not breaking steely-eyed eye contact. "It's a protection sigil; it prevents Demon possession. I know I sound crazy, but they do exist, I promise."

"The other guy _did_ have it too, boss." Tony spoke up. "If that helps. Don't see how it would actually work tho--"

"Other guy?" Gibbs questioned.

"Dean," Claire said. "He and Castiel are... partners, you could say, in Dean's family business. _Saving People and Hunting Things;_ the things that go... bump in the night."

Tony shuddered. "That'll never not be creepy." He reached for boss' bourbon and filled his jar, taking a swallow. He looked up to find the pair staring at him. "What? I think I deserved this, okay?" and took another drink.

Claire grimaced guiltily. "I never wanted to tell you, I never wanted a reason to have to tell you." She apologized. "But I get it was just wishful thinking; this isn't the first time my past has caught up with me and I doubt it with be the last."

Tony wrapped an arm around her hips and pulled her against his side. "Sorry I ran out of there." He held up the jar in a sort of peace-offering.

She gave him a small smile, "I wish I could have ran outta there, too." She reached for it, it was very much needed.

But Gibbs took it before she could, drained it, and slammed it on the workbench. "No more drinking, more talking!"

"The incident when I was thirteen," she swallowed, "It didn't end in the house with our two dead neighbours. I was kidnapped by Demons, one of them was possessing my mom. They wanted my dad—they wanted what Castiel knew—so they used me as leverage. My dad and Dean and--" she shook her head, there was no need to bring up the younger Winchester brother. "Dad was shot, and um," Tony's arm tightened briefly around her waist, "Castiel came to me, I was his Vessel--"

"He was inside you?" Tony asked with a sound of disgust.

"Not like that!" Claire smacked him on the chest just as Gibbs gave him a head-slap.

"Alright, alright." He rubbed his head and chest.

Claire looked back to Gibbs. "He saved us, went back to my dad and healed him. And then I never saw dad-- Castiel or Dean again... until," she cringed a little, "That scene I processed for the F.B.I when I was gone for a couple hours."

"Gone?!" Tony demanded, jumping to his feet in sudden anger, making Claire stumble back into the work table at the center of Gibbs' basement.

"Jeez, Tony!" she protested, straightening.

"You went _missing_ , Claire!" Tony shouted. "We thought you'd been kidnapped. And-and that story you told in interrogation?" he swung his arm.

"I know and I'm sorry!" she shouted back. "But what else was I supposed to say? _Oh, hey, the Angel inside of my dad, who is suspected of double murder and has been MIA for the past 17 years put those Feebs to sleep with the touch of his fingers and teleported my to an unknown location._ I don't think so, I'd like to keep my job, thank you very much."

"Yeah, well, your prospects aren't looking very favourable right now." He sneered back.

"Gibbs can't fire me," Claire returned. "He's not my boss. And I don't see the Director believing any of this."

"Ow!" they both protested as Gibbs gave them a double-slap.

"That's getting old very fast." Claire whined.

"Why did they suddenly appear after all these years?" Gibbs questioned severely, pulling the couple back on track.

Claire turned from Tony. "It was the tattoo."

"The tattoo."

Claire nodded. "All Hunters—that's what they call themselves—all have it to protect them from Demon possession. It's like doctors wearing a mask," she put a hand over her mouth in demonstration, "They're like smoke, that's how possess you."

"Smoke?" Tony questioned.

"Think of an evil smoke-version of _Blubber,_ Tony." She said.

Tony made a strangled noise. "That movies never going to be the same again."

"Novak." Gibbs growled.

"Right." Claire took a breath. "Dean said that there was this virus going around. That Hunter's were being haunted by their pasts and that their bodies needed to be cleansed in a ritual otherwise they were going to reanimate, like a zombie, but worse."

"Zombies now, too?" Tony complained, sighing heavily and carded a hand through his hair.

"I don't know what they did to the bodies, or what, Gibbs." She said. "I'm sure that if you really wanted to know, you could probably check under the radar." She bit her lip, "I'm not really going to get fired, am I?"

"Probation." Gibbs said, his glare cutting to include Tony in the statement.

"What?"

"With me. My team, my rules."

"I know this sounds a lot like that nervous breakdown you were so worried about--"

"It does," he agreed.

"But it's not." She swore. "I promise." Gibbs made no further comment, just watched her and waited. "But you already believe me, don't you? Your gut instinct proceeds you, Gibbs, otherwise you wouldn't have let me keep talking." She crossed her arms.

"Anything else to add?" Gibbs rose a brow.

"No." She answered, fighting back the snarky _not unless you ask nicely._ By his look she was sure that she hadn't swallowed it fast enough.

"That's it, boss?" Tony demanded, incredulous.

"Yeah." Gibbs said. "Now get the hell out of my basement before I really do fire you."

Claire and Tony looked at Gibbs for a second and then each other, before they quickly scrambled for the stairs.

"Thanks for the drink, boss!" Tony called on the way up the stairs.

"Thanks for the talk, Gibbs!" Claire shouted on the way out the door.

Tony and Claire stared at each other, awkwardly lingering on Gibbs' walk, unwilling to part with the uncertainty, even if it was just to their respective cars back to their apartment.

"Tony?" she whispered.

"So," he buried his hands in his sweater pocket. "Tattoo parlours still open this time of night?"

She shook her head. "I was being stupid--"

"Nah. You told me not to freak out and I completely lost my marbles. Don't think you're the only one in trouble with Gibbs."

" _I_ freaked out." She told him. "The tattoo, that was my 'Gibbs' and I think it's a little more permanent." She gave a small chuckle.

"Don't be too sure." He pulled his hands out of his pocket and pulled her into a hug. "Gibbs doesn't let things slide; his memory lasts about as long as a tattoo." He mused.

"I know you're not fond of needles after the plague," she rested her cheek on his shoulder. "It doesn't have to be a tattoo. I can get a charm from Dean, but you can't take it off." She rose her head and locked eyes with him. " _EVER."_

He snorted. "We're not even married and I already get the ball and chain," he joked.

"Tony!"

"I won't, I promise." He vowed and pulled her into a passionate kiss right their in his boss' driveway.

tbc!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bitch to write. What did you think about the confrontation? Should I have made Tony get the tattoo?


End file.
